In the 1920s, young musician Marthe decides to leave the countryside and head to Quebec City to study piano. Faced with deteriorating health, she agrees to marry her recently widowed neighbour in exchange for the money that she will need for the trip. Upon her arrival in the city, she rents a garret apartment and begins a new life, convinced that she can postpone the inevitable. In the company of her new bohemian friends, Marthe is free to reinvent herself and soon discovers the pleasures of jazz with the help of a black clarinetist named Oliver. As the months pass, the frenetic urban lifestyle begins to take its toll and Marthe is confronted with some hard decisions.