Exactly where he last saw her, struggling new writer Gale Jones once again encounters the girl of his dreams. Or, rather, the beautiful stranger who haunts his restless slumber. She dons the same blue dress that she did on the fateful dinner cruise seven summers ago, when they shared a dance on the deck of the ship. The scent of her vanilla perfume and of her strawberry perfume is exactly as he recalls from when he held her close for six short minutes. Her smile, the precious sight granted to him mere moments before she disappeared into the night, is once more his alone to behold.
But she has apparently forgotten about that magical evening back in August 1992. Since the last time he came to the city, she lost all memories of her past. Now as listless as she is nameless, the young woman reveals little of her current life except that she always comes to the Old Port of Montreal at daybreak. And so there on early mornings Gale meets with his new friend “Dawn” to make good on their new promise: she will help him fall in love with the sunrise, and he will help her find her name.
Madeleine biscuits with masala chai, classical music on cassettes and vinyls, fireworks during the festive summer months of the bilingual metropolis — from Canada Day to the New Year, the last six months of the old millennium mark their last chance to live in the hazy past.