During the summer of 1968, Leon, a 10-year-old boy, navigates the hardships of young love, his lunatic mother's whims, and his urges to vandalize the house of his neighbors.

The passage of time is probably the only concrete proof we have that justice exists in this cruel world. Some people would like to stop time in its tracks, while others choose to follow its path. In this story, three men in their early thirties have reached that age when it's time to start thinking about "getting a life", perhaps starting a family. But how do you handle the fact that your friendships are changing? That, slowly, your new family is becoming the center of your ever-shrinking world? What do you do when you realize your youth is a thing of the past?

As a civil war shakes the Quebec province of Canada, Valerie is the sole survivor of a mass execution where her boyfriend is killed. Years later, she’s in a close relationship with her new partner, Gabriel. At the Long Term Care Center where she works as an orderly, she befriends Jeanne, an erudite and funny woman, dealing with an important physical handicap. Mixing realism and worrying strangeness, The Laugh presents a humane exploration of the survivor’s syndrome, the grieving process, the distance of time, the power of love, and the joy of being alive.

The movie chronicles the long, futuristic voyage of a team of Québécois space explorers looking for a planet capable of sustaining life, in the year 2034, after the destruction of the ozone layer through excessive human pollution, prompting the need for a new planet to welcome humankind. The seven crew members venture outside their own galaxy to explore other star system in search of a new planet large enough to sustain 6 billion people. The few habitable planets encountered are ultimately abandoned either because they are already occupied (emphasizing the wrongdoing of invading other civilizations and cultures), or because upon closer inspection they are found to have other problems (cow-sized mosquitoes, high radiation levels, dog overpopulation, unsuitable living environment, ...).

Taking advantage of his mother's absence as she departs on a cruise ship for some rest and relaxation, 12-year-old Félix sets out to find his father, a fisherman who disappeared at sea two years earlier.