This history of oppression and its effects, at the heart of a French-Canadian family in the 1950s and 1960s, depicts a combination of prohibitions and censures. While the father demands the children's slavish obedience and labour, the mother promises some protection from his tyranny--until the family settles into a flea pit hotel at the cross-roads of a practically deserted village. Surrounded by an impenetrable forest, the hotel hosts regulars...