A once-beautiful old theatre/nightclub building is slated for imminent demolition, and the looming wreckers' ball triggers in the mind of one elderly observer a torrent of bittersweet memories of Montréal's glorious 1940's past, back when the City of Saints was a world-class party town that could rival New York, Paris or Berlin, where (as Lili St-Cyr, reigning strip-teaseuse, once said), "Every night was like New Year's Eve..."

Real characters intertwine with fictional ones. A tabloid reporter joins forces with an errant mother out to make amends for a past mistake that still haunts her. Together, they search from the gutter to the penthouse for the lady's missing daughter Nanette, the celebrated chanteuse headlining at El Morocco. Nanette, the hottest star in a town full of them, has suddenly vanished amidst the scandal-ridden city's raging political and religious in-fighting. And, of course, World War II looms on the horizon over it all, with its pressing home-front implications.

Three-quarters fiction, one-quarter actual documentary footage — like ZELIG: some real, some re-created, some out-and-out faked — our film noir is a portrait of an unforgettable era, as well as a tender and sometimes dark love letter to a once-glorious city's most vibrant times....