Montreal plastic surgeon Dr. Christopher Lewis (David Boutin) gets pulled over for speeding by an officer, Réal Fournier (Jean-Pierre Gonthier), the former mayor of Ste-Marie-la-Mauderne who moved to the city because he, like most of the residents of Ste-Marie, couldn't get a job there.

Henri Giroux (Benoît Brière), the local banker whose sole job is to cash the townfolks' welfare cheques, leaves small amounts of money for Dr. Lewis to find as small measures to increase Dr. Lewis' happiness about being in town, and attempts to secure a loan through his bank for the bribe.

Henri fronts the money from his personal savings, after a bank executive tells him that he has a job only as a favour to his father, and that his position could easily be replaced by an ATM.

[3] The film's producers felt the island looked too pretty to fill the role of a fishing village experiencing hard times, so they worsened its appearance in the movie.

An English-language remake titled The Grand Seduction was released in 2013, starring Taylor Kitsch as Dr Lewis with Brendan Gleeson, Mary Walsh, Cathy Jones, and Gordon Pinsent as town folks.

The action takes place in a small imaginary Pyrenean village : Saint-Loin-la-Mauderne,[6] which is twinned with Sainte-Marie-la-Mauderne from the original movie.

An Italian remake was released in 2016; titled Un paese quasi perfetto [it] (English: An almost perfect village), this version was directed by Massimo Gaudioso.

A Spanish-language remake titled La Gran Seducción (English: The Great Seduction) was released in 2023 on Netflix.