In 1972, Mi'kmaq Annie Mae Pictou Aquash answers a call by the American Indian Movement to go to Wash. to force the government to honor its treat obligations with indigenous people; tensions rise and activists make a unsettling discovery.

Annie Mae risks her life to join a dangerous occupation in S.D.; the Movement is embraced by Hollywood; the government secretly infiltrates AIM at the highest levels; Annie Mae makes a dangerous decision in her personal life.

A clash between the FBI and AIM proves deadly; Annie Mae makes a secret pact with a close friend before going on the run with a group of fugitives and then disappears; discovering a body in the Badlands.

After a strange incident, the first indigenous U.S. Marshall investigates Annie Mae's fate; evidence leads to three names; investigators struggle to find enough evidence to go to trial but someone comes forward and agrees to wear a wire.