At the height of the Great Depression, two Prairie children struggle with poverty and uncertainty. Surrounded by religion, law, and her authoritarian father, Cora Wagoner daydreams about what it would be like to abandon society altogether and join one of the Indian tribes she has read so much about. Saddened by struggles with Indian Agent restrictions, Hunter George wonders why his father does not want him to go to the residential school. As he too faces drastic change, he keeps himself sane with his grandmother's stories of Wîsahkecâhk. As Cora and Hunter sojourn through a landscape of nuisance grounds and societal refuse, they come to realise that they exist in a land that is simultaneously moving beyond history and drowning in its excess.