FBI agent Ray Levoi (Val Kilmer) has been denying his Sioux heritage since the death of his alcoholic father. When he is assigned to a murder case alongside Frank Coutelle on the Bear Creek Indian...

FBI agent Ray Levoi (Val Kilmer) has been denying his Sioux heritage since the death of his alcoholic father. When he is assigned to a murder case alongside Frank Coutelle on the Bear Creek Indian Reservation in the South Dakota badlands, he resents being there and still tries to push away his heritage. As he collects evidence in his own private investigation of the goings-on at the reservation, he comes to trust Walter Crow Horse (Graham Greene), a tribal policeman who takes Ray to see Grandpa Sam Reaches (Ted Thin Elk), a mystical medicine man whom Ray comes to trust. As things are being revealed to Ray, he stumbles upon the real reason he was sent down here, and races against time to try and stop it before the reservation becomes a dead zone.