Albert Traoré, a Côte d'Ivoire national, is the second engineer aboard the Russian owned Diego Star. He fell into the work to give his family a better life at the expense of never seeing them, he having missed experiencing the formative years of his now seventeen year old son, who he doesn't really know. The ship itself has been mismanaged by the company, they who are aware of its crumbling status but who are unwilling to make the necessary repairs in the company's corrupt nature. The ship having just docked in Québec in the middle of winter and the crew not having been paid in two months, the ship's engine malfunctions due to that mismanagement and corruption. Against threats by the company to say that the engine problems were human caused by Traoré's team and thus the ship being sent on its way without oversight, Traoré, feeling that the system will work in his and his men's favor, decides to tell the Canadian authorities the truth which he believes will lead to the company not only having to make the necessary repairs before they leave port, but that they will get paid in the process. The company has to pay for room and board for the sailors while they're in port, Traoré assigned to the small apartment home of sullen Fanny Ouellette, a struggling single mother to infant Jérémie. Working in the cafeteria at the shipyard, Fanny is not only facing financial struggles - the reason she took in a sailor - but general life struggles in trying to find a balance in being sole breadwinner, a present mother and having some down time, she who feels that life has continually dumped on her. Traoré and Fanny end up filling certain needs missing in the other's life, which during his time in Québec may be threatened by his continuing issues with the company and the emerging issues with his shipmates who are working solely for their own individual survival.—Huggo