Shadows in the City

Following the premature death of his mother, Michel, a Quebec farm boy is left alone among a family of adult men. The boy is gentle and artistic and easily runs foul of other boys in school. After a sexual assault by a depraved uncle, Michel runs away from the Ottawa Valley farm to Montreal where he becomes a street kid, disguised as a female using the name Micheline. She gets into prostitution and is rescued from a life of degradation by a biker gang executive who makes her rehabilitation a personal project leading to marriage. Gang warfare breaks out and Micheline is sent for her own safety to Vancouver after a kidnapping attempt for a rival gang. After an attack on Micheline, who by now is operating as a call girl in Vancouver's westend, she gives up the sex trade and using her savings starts up a successful French-Canadian restaurant. This is an interesting story mixing elements of crime, business activities and the media with an emotional transsexual theme.