In 1947, twelve-year-old Callie lives on a primitive, isolated homestead in northern Canada. A lover of nature and seeker of truth, she wants to become a botanist. But her mother, Lillian, insists that Callie's only purpose in life is to be a dutiful wife and mother, and her father, a veteran haunted by memories of war, refuses to interfere. Her innocence, fostered by isolation and her mother's determination to force Callie into an outdated mold, is the catalyst of a family feud that tests all Callie's growing strength as she struggles for the freedom to be herself.