Underneath the woods and wetlands of northwestern Canada lie roughly two trillion barrels of oil, fifteen percent of the world's known reserves and six times more than what's left in Saudi Arabia. This documentary film follows the journey of Warren Cariou, a writer from northern Saskatchewan, who learns that the oil companies from Alberta are expanding into his homeland.

Warren returns home, to the Cree and Dene community of La Loche and to the nearby Métis village of Buffalo Narrows, to talk to people about what they hope the development will bring, and about their fears. He then travels across the border to Alberta and speaks to the people there who have lived with the oil sands development for more than thirty years.

The Alberta oilfields are also the homeland of two small aboriginal communities, Fort Mackay and Fort Chipewyan, which lie along the Athabasca River. Warren learns of their struggle to preserve their traditional way of life in the midst of the largest and most destructive oil recovery operation the world has ever known.

This sensitive and nuanced documentary gives voice to the people who are most directly affected by the development that is driving Canada’s new role in the global economy. It is a story of change, of struggle, and of cultural persistence. Fundamentally it is about the different ways in which people value the land.