After being discharged from the military for lying on his recruitment application, J.C. Murray bounces between jobs and living situations, until he finally hits rock bottom. With no options left he is forced to return to a rural desert town in Oregon and live with his Mom and abusive brother, Tom. While working a menial job for Tom’s painting company, J.C is offered cash by his older brother Harris to go up in the hills and illegally shoot wild horses that have been grazing on ranchers land. While up in the hills he comes face to face with a wild horse and can’t bring himself to shoot it; instead firing his gun to scare it off. Harris works J.C. over and leaves him out in the brush. The next morning J.C. is helped by a local hermit rancher, Finch, who takes a liking to J.C. and subsequently offers him work on the ranch. Finch begins to teach J.C. how to work with and rescue wild mustangs - a positive turning point in his life.
The Bureau of Land Management suspect J.C. for the shooting of local wild horses and J.C.’s troubled past begins to unravel and catch up with him - forcing him to use the lessons that the horses and Finch have taught him, to not throw his life away.