Theodore Roosevelt is bound for greatness—he's a Harvard graduate from a prominent family, a rising politician, and his wife, Alice, is pregnant. Then his promising future turns tragic. His mother succumbs to typhoid, and Alice dies in childbirth on the same day. Devastated, Teddy leaves his urban world of high rises and high society for the desolate Dakota Territory, where, by facing the harsh reality of surviving life on America’s frontier, he intends to remake himself into something greater.
Poet Layli Long Soldier crafts a searing portrait of her Oyate’s connection to the Black Hills, through first contact and broken treaties to the promise of the Land Back movement, in this lyrical testament to resilience of a nation.
An outlaw is rescued from death by a nun who is traveling through the Badlands. She nurses him back to health in exchange for him guiding her to a Church in Williston. A deep friendship develops between these two unlikely people as they learn to work together to survive their dangerous journey.