The legend goes that, in 1896, a Canadian Pacific Railway cook by the name of Ha Ling was bet $50 that he couldn't summit the northwestern peak of Mount Lawrence Grassi — a prominent peak that overlooks the mountain town of Canmore, AB — in under 10 hours. After proving he had summited the 2407 metre peak, locals called the peak "Chinaman's Peak." The name stuck for more than a century, even as the term fell out of common usage and came to be seen as a racial slur.

The documentary tells the story of a century-long drama that culminates when the residents of a small mountain town are thrust into the national spotlight after a quiet schoolteacher forces them to confront the troubling history behind a seemingly simple folk story.