On the drive up to Free Mountain College where she’s been hired for her first teaching job, Terra, 33, has a doom filled-dream: she’s in the snow, pregnant and spewing black liquid out of her mouth. When she arrives on campus, she finds out that she’s been housed in a dorm with the students.
In her first class, she meets Emma, a Native student, who chides her for giving up activism for teaching. One lonely weekend, Terra borrows a colleague’s car to drive Emma and her classmates to a protest against a local oil pipeline. When the protest turns violent and a student gets hurt, Terra receives a warning from the Dean.
As Terra uncovers the school’s corruption and ties to the pipeline, her bond with Emma deepens and she starts to question the life she’s been leading, including her relationship with her boyfriend and the prospect of having a child. Terra slowly loses her grip on reality and in a moment of madness, engages in a destructive act of revenge against the school.