With an absent father and a withdrawn and depressed mother, 17 year-old Ree Dolly keeps her family together in a dirt poor rural area. She s taken aback however when the local Sheriff tells her that her father put up their house as collateral for his bail and unless he shows up for his trial in a week s time, they will lose it all. She knows her father is involved in the local drug trade and manufactures crystal meth, but everywhere she goes the message is the same: stay out of it and stop poking your nose in other people s business. She refuses to listen, even after her father s brother, Teardrop, tells her he s probably been killed. She pushes on, putting her own life in danger, for the sake of her family until the truth, or enough of it, is revealed.