La petite vie was first a stage sketch of the comedy duo Ding et Dong, formed by Claude Meunier and Serge Thériault, and later a hit Quebec television sitcom aired by Radio-Canada from 1993 to 1999. In total, 59 episodes were created plus 3 specials, two for Christmas and one for New Year's 2000. It is to date the only Canadian TV show to ever gather more than 4 million viewers, a performance it achieved twice in 1995.

With the help of a gruff old neighbor, a little girl from Limoilou, blessed with a fertile imagination, sets out to make her father happier.

Vera is a troubled teenager fresh out of school feeling trapped in her provincial port town during the turbulent times of perestroika. Her days and nights are filled with drinking, sex, and family dysfunction.

When Lyudmila Ivanova made her infamous claim during a US-Soviet TV programme in 1986 that ‘There is no sex in the USSR!’, her comment – although roundly mocked at the time – revealed a certain truth about Soviet attitudes towards sex and the ways in which it was controlled by the regime, rendering it largely invisible. With this documentary, the director takes us through 70 years of Soviet history to highlight the interplay between sex, politics and society and the changing meanings attached to sex and sexuality under different General Secretaries.