Toronto, 1967. Two young women with different backgrounds, attitudes, and aptitudes are living in an exciting but confusing time, the most extreme counterculture movement the modern world has ever seen. They have little in common except for the place they both call home: an apartment building on Isabella Street. Marion Hart, a psychiatrist working in Toronto's foremost mental hospital, is fighting deinstitutionalization--the closing of major institutions in favour of community-based centres--because she believes it could one day cause major homelessness. When Daniel Neumann, a veteran with a debilitating wound, is admitted to the mental hospital, Marion will learn through him that there is so much more to life than what she is living. Sassy Rankin, a budding folk singer and care-free hippie from a privileged family, joins protests over the Vietnam War and is distressed that her brother has enlisted in the US Marines. At the same time, she must deal with the truth that her comfortable life is financed by her wealthy father, a real estate magnate bent on gentrifying the city, making it unaffordable for many of her friends. The strength of their unlikely friendship means that when one grapples with a catastrophic event, the other must do all she can to make it right.
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