Jessup Dolly goes under when winter arrives. His family, living in dire poverty in the backcountry of Missouri, lacks everything. They barely have enough to eat and not even enough firewood to keep the house warm. Jessup's sixteen-year-old daughter Ree selflessly cares for her ailing mother and her two younger brothers. But then the inevitable happens. The police show up at the door and inform Ree that her father, who has previously been imprisoned for drug offenses and is now facing charges again, has put the house up as collateral for his bail. If Jessup does not appear in court, his family will lose everything they have. Ree has one week to find her father, dead or alive.