In September 1890, the academic year begins at the Carlisle School, a boarding school for Indians in Pennsylvania, founded and run by Captain Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt's motto, "To save the man, we must kill the Indian," is severely enforced: Speak only English, forget your own language and customs, learn to be white. As the students navigate surviving the school, they begin to hear rumors of a "ghost dance" aimed at restoring the Native People to power. The US government responds by deploying troops onto lands that had been granted to the Indians. At Carlisle, each student must make a choice: to follow the white man's path, or be true to their own way of life.