The film stars Tim Henry as Billie Joyce, a gay and transvestite former musician who has been institutionalized in an asylum due to mental illness. Inheriting the smalltown hotel formerly owned by his deceased father, he returns home intending to sell the hotel to real estate developer Oscar Kidd (Robert A. Silverman), but soon finds himself in the position of defending the rights of the hotel's staff against Kidd's renovation plans.

During the last years of World War II, Hermie, Oscy, and Benjie are coming of age. They went their separate ways when they graduated from high school in 1944. Benjie joins the Marines as Hermie and Oscy enter college. There, Hermie falls head over heels for another freshman named Julie, and the two old friends deal with a troublesome fraternity president who is in charge of hazings.

Film accompanying the book of the same name by Nelvana Enterprises founders Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert, with partner Clive Smith as designer and illustrator. It looks at the "Canadian Whites" series of comic books made during World War II, with some focus on Nelvana of the Northern Lights, the genre's first superheroine, and Johnny Canuck. It was accompanied by a two-year travelling tour of the art, the National Gallery of Canada's "Comic Art Traditions in Canada, 1941–45". This is Nelvana Enterprises' first film.