Twelve-year-old cousins Alice and Sophie are a study in contrasts. Alice, a tall brunette who lives in Montreal with only her dad, is a fi gure skater with a lot of talent and a bit of an attitude. Sophie, a short blond who lives on a dairy farm with her mom, dad and spooky little brother Sebastian, loves looking after their herd of cows. In January 1998, it starts to rain and it won't stop. The rain turns to ice and causes big trouble. First, the roads are closed, and then the power lines come down and the electricity is gone. Alice struggles to stay warm, alone in the dark, because her dad is working around the clock for Quebec Hydro. Meanwhile, Sophie and her family fi ght to look after their high-maintenance dairy cows without power to run the water pumps, the milking machines or anything else.