It is 1953. Thomas Wazhushk is the night watchman at the the first factory to open near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a prominent Chippewa Council member, trying to understand a new bill that is soon to be put before Congress. The U.S. Government calls it an 'emancipation' bill; but it isn't about freedom; it threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land, their very identity. How can he fight this betrayal? Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Pixie, 'Patrice'--Paranteau has no desire to wear herself down on a husband and kids. She works at the factory, earning barely enough to support her mother and brother. But Patrice needs every penny she can get if she's ever going to get to Minnesota to find her missing sister Vera.