After the deaths of three children suspected to be killed by wolves in a remote Alaskan village, naturalist and wolf expert Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) is hired by the mother, Medora (Riley Keough), of a missing six-year-old boy to track down and locate her son in the wilderness.

When her soldier husband, Vernon (Alexander Skarsgård), returns from war, he is determined to find out what exactly happened, but his arrival sets off a violent chain of events.