A warm summer in Montreal. Two black men, Man and Bouba, share an apartment. Man is an ambitious author, writing on The Great Novel. Bouba is a lazy amateur philosopher who quotes the Koran. Man's habit of picking up young white women makes many young white men jealous...

Siberia 1953: Ilsa is now working in a Gulag prison camp. Her mission is to "retrain the minds" of those who don't agree with the communists.