From acclaimed director Kelly Reichardt comes a stark and poetic drama set in 1845, the earliest days of the treacherous Oregon Trail. A wagon train of three families (including two-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams) has hired mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. After getting lost on an unmarked path in the high plain desert, the emigrants must face the scourges of hunger, thirst, and their own lack of faith in each others' instincts for survival.
Wendy Carroll (Michelle Williams) is driving to Alaska, in hopes of a summer of work at the Northwestern Fish cannery and the start of a new life with her dog, Lucy. But, when her car breaks down in Oregon, her financial situation comes apart.