Uses firsthand accounts, location filming, and virtual-reality re-creations to trace the history of the hundreds of Indian nations that have inhabitated North America for over 15,000 years, discussing their centuries-long struggle to survive.

In the 17th century, Father Laforgue, a young Jesuit priest, is assigned to go up river into the Canadian wilderness to convert the Huron Indians. His young aide and translator, Daniel, falls in love with Annuka, the daughter of the Algonquin chief. Torn between his own desires and ideals of the priesthood, Laforgue's faith is tested, and his life and the outcome of the mission imperiled, as the expedition faces the elements and hostile Indians.