Claude Tremblay leaves his Native girlfriend, his family and his small hometown of Saint-Irénée and moves to Montreal to try and make a name for himself as a singer-songwriter. Success is more difficult to attain than he thought and to earn a living he takes on a succession of odd jobs and meets Geneviève, a young waitress in a greasy spoon diner. He falls in love with her and then enters a singing contest that finally launches his career. As he gradually becomes more well-known, he has a brief affair with a married woman and breaks up with Geneviève. Claude finds himself just as unhappy and unfulfilled as he was before he was famous and realizes that all of the money in the world won't bring Geneviève back.