The film fictionalizes, in a general sense, historical conflict related to the Bolshevik Revolution occurring in the Arkhangelsk (Archangel) region of Russia, a basic concept presented to Maddin by John Harvie.

"[3] Archangel is set in 1919 in the northern Russian area of Archangel, during a brief historical moment of Canadian intervention in the Russian Civil War following the end of World War I. One-legged Canadian soldier Lt. John Boles sighs on the rail of a steamship over the ashes of his dead lover Iris.

)[4] Boles arrives in the town of Archangel as an Allied trooper and billets with a local family consisting of a brave son, Geza, a cowardly father, Jannings, and mother Danchuk (who is immediately smitten with Boles) and a grandmother simply called "Baba" along with a seemingly nameless baby.

Veronkha enters and Boles spies her in a mirror and faints, so affected by her resemblance to his lost love Iris.

The citizenry of Archangel next participates in staging various battle tableaux, posing as victorious over the Huns while a narrator provides commentary on their bravery.

Soon after, a real battle takes place, after which Boles and Danchuk travel over a field of corpses that they discover are mostly just resting.

They reunite gloriously, until Veronkha sees Philbin and remembers who she is, then rejects Boles and threatens to kill him if he touches her again.

Boles, dismayed, heads back to the war, although first he begs Danchuk to take care of "his" baby (actually, already hers) if anything should happen to him.

Boles launches a final assault and is injured by a grenade marked "Gott strafe Kanada" [German for "God punish Canada"], staggering through the same treasure map route that previously took him to Veronkha—this time he arrives at the scene of her marriage (again) to Philbin.

[5] Archangel is also included on the DVD boxed set The Quintessential Guy Maddin: 5 Films from the Heart of Winnipeg, released by Zeitgeist Video, alongside Careful, Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, and Cowards Bend the Knee.