Michel Marc Bouchard's Heat Wave tells the story of a family learning how to live again after a three-year vigil at the bedside of controlling patriarch Fred Cloutier. Cloutier is still controlling his wife and children from beyond the grave, as the characters deal with guilt complexes created by years of manipulation. But this situation comedy is mainly about love, about May/September relationships, and about appearances and not-so-little white lies that people tell in order to disguise their true selves and deny their true emotions.