The film chronicles the coming-of-age of George Dull Knife as he grows up on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He lives with his father and extended family outside of Kyle, SD and is a freshman at Little Wound High School. He is mostly concerned with avoiding the drugs, alcohol, and gangs that permeate life on the Reservation, but soon becomes involved in social justice campaigns combatting police brutality, illegal alcohol sales, and the Keystone XL Pipeline. A pivotal moment occurs when George is 15, after the alleged mutilation of Vern Traversie, a blind Lakota elder who went to Rapid City Regional Hospital for heart surgery in 2012 and emerged with what appeared to be the letters KKK cut into his torso. Amid the community outrage and public protests, George joins the American Indian Movement. Guy Dull Knife is a veteran of AIM from the 1970s, when their activity peaked with the Wounded Knee Occupation, and becomes a guide for George as he becomes more politically active. Together they form a security group, designed to protect protesters from law enforcement or counter-protesters at rallies and marches.