Emile is the story of an aging professor who makes a journey from his home in England to receive an honorary from the University of Victoria on Canada′s west coast. Although this fact sets his journey in motion, his real purpose for the journey is the opportunity to reconnect with his only living relative, the daughter of his long deceased older brother, a single mother named Nadia. His grown-up niece has had a troubled life, partially as a by-product of Emile′s earlier life in Canada. At his time with Nadia progresses, Emile′s guilt about the past, his recollections of his two dead brothers, and his obligations to family start to bring him out of his present circumstances and into the world of memory and imagination. His long buried pain about distant arguments, betrayals and youthful love affairs begins to resurface. However alongside the painful dramas, Nadia′s daughter, the ten-year old Maria develops a special bond with this visiting stranger.