The day after their wedding night Emily and Ovila are wakened by Lazarus; Charlotte is in agony and dies. Charlotte’s death affects Emily and Lazarus particularly, as they hold deep feelings for her. Ovila is bowled over with happiness when he learns that Emily is pregnant. On the eve of St. Sylvester Dosithée Pronovost invites his son to go with him for three months to a woodcutters’ camp. Despite his desire to stay with Emily, the need for money makes him accept. Laid off early by his employer he returns soon to his wife swearing that he will never leave her again. The confinement is painful despite the presence of the midwife. Around her Ovila and Felicity are affected in different ways. The baby, who was thought for a moment to be still-born, is to be called Rose. She will be baptised in a ceremony marked by laughter.

After a visit to the doctor Ovila tells Emily that Rose is retarded. The lack of oxygen at her birth has impaired her faculties. Emily takes this badly and the tensions mount between them. She delivers her second child, Mary-Angela, alone. Ovila has lost his contract and he doesn’t go back. Rose reacts badly to the arrival of her baby sister and Ovila, unemployed, doesn’t cope well. After telling Ovila that she’s expecting a third child Emily gets hysterical about Rose and still refuses to recognise her condition. Ovila takes refuge in alcohol. Tension mounts. Emily gives birth to a third daughter, Louisa. Exhausted, she insists that her husband goes back to the camp. During his absence she gradually regains control of herself. A little before Christmas Ovila returns and they leave together for the cabin at Lac-à-la-Perchaude. Rose gives him a present of her first complete sentence.

Emily’s good feelings towards her husband are rewarded by his unexpected return. Their child is eventually baptised and named Emilien. The reunion is not, however, easy, and Emily has difficulty making love to Ovila. Despite everything she falls pregnant and Ovila leaves for the camp. When he doesn’t come back for Christmas Emily is concerned. She falls out with the Pronovosts and delivers her baby alone outside in a violent snow storm. Ovila returns finally at the end of March and encounters a cold and distant Emily who wants to make him feel guilty. Even when she learns the real reason for him being late, she remains impassive. Her confidence in him is shaky. When Ovila reappears in mid January their passion revives. Ovila tells his wife he will not return to the camp again and will instead float logs in the spring. Emily discovers however that he’s actually been dismissed. Ashamed, Ovila starts to drink again, then leaves his family once again.

Episode 17

Beginning of December 1908. Ovila has been gone for ten months and Emily has had another baby. When he eventually returns to the village, without a penny, Emily reproaches him violently and he goes away again immediately. After the departure of his son, Edmond, to get married, Dosithée Pronovost offers the succession of the farm to Ovila, who accepts despite his aversion to working on the land. After a period of calm during which Emily becomes pregnant again, Ovila returns to the camp. He doesn’t want to work on the farm and borrows Emily’s last savings to go shopping in the village. But his absence stretches out and she is forced to seek refuge with her in-laws to feed her family. Ovila finally returns in the middle of the night dead drunk. The next day, eaten up with remorse, he promises to work the land with his father. Deciding to tell Dosithée the good news, he learns that he has died in the night. Extremely upset by his father’s demise, Ovila regrets not having been able to speak to him. Emily supports him during this ordeal. During the reading of the will we find Ovila is disinherited, but it’s Emily who receives the land and the money. There’s great consternation in the Pronovost family.

Ovila has finished Télésphore’s cabinet. Everyone admires his work. Coming to look at the cabinet Télésphore suddenly falls ill and dies of an obscure disease. Ovila is distraught and decides to leave Saint-Tite for Shawinigin. Reluctantly Emily agrees to follow him. Ovila finds work in a paper mill, but the family adapts with difficulty to modern living and Emily soon leaves for Lac-à-la-Perchaude with her family. During their absence Ovila saves a tidy sum which allows him to buy a house in town. On Emily’s return a phone call tells her of her mother’s death. Emily prepares to go to the funeral but, tied by his obligations, Ovila can neither accompany her nor look after the children. Emily pleads with him to leave his job and take up cabinet-making again, but he obstinately refuses. Emily doesn’t attend her mother’s funeral.

Episode 20

Emily gives birth alone once again while Ovila is away doing repairs for a former employer. While Emily demeans herself to save her family Ovila dreams from now on of tilling the soil at Abitibi. Harrassed by thugs to whom Ovila owes money, Emily packs Ovila’s case. On his return she orders him to leave for Abitibi, telling him she will settle his debt. Ovila leaves, and she returns to Saint-Tite with the children where she awaits her destiny ...