Roy taught school in Manitoba for a time, studied drama in Europe (1937–39), and then returned to Canada, settling in Montreal, where she worked as a journalist. Her studies of poverty-stricken working-class people in the cities include Bonheur d'occasion (1945; The Tin Flute) and Alexandre Chenevert, caissier (1954; The Cashier). Some of her novels, such as La Petite Poule d'eau (1950; Where Nests the Waterhen) and Rue Deschambault (1955; Street of Riches), deal with isolated rural life in Manitoba. She also wrote a book of semiautobiographical stories, La Route d'Altamont (1966; The Road Past Altamont), and a novel based on her experiences as a schoolteacher, Ces enfants de ma vie (1977; Children of My Heart). An autobiography, La Détresse et l'enchantement (Enchantment and Sorrow), was published posthumously in 1984.