The Long Winter

A partly fictionalized historical drama about the rebellion of 1837 and 1838 that sought to make Lower Canada (now Quebec) a republic independent of the British empire. The main protagonist is Patriote François-Xavier Bouchard. The latter comes back to Lower Canada in the autumn of 1838 after having escaped to the United States (as a number of Patriotes did indeed), after the first uprising, in that year. As soon as he returns, despite the exhortations of his family, he joins François-Marie-Thomas Chevalier de Lorimier for another attempt. Following a hasty trial, Bouchard, Chevalier de Lorimier and others are sentenced to death.