Eldon Starlight sends word summoning Frank to the mill town of Parson's Gap.

Frank tracks down Eldon in a dilapidated rooming house shared with a woman named Deirdre.

Eldon reveals he is dying and begs Frank to give him a proper Ojibway warrior's burial in the wilderness.

Frank and Eldon ride out of Parson's Gap together on horseback into the wilderness.

Frank impresses Eldon by catching fish and starting a fire using only natural materials, with no store-bought supplies.

Eldon begins sharing stories of his impoverished early life with Frank around the campfire.

Frank leads Eldon to an ancient cliff face covered in towering painted Indigenous symbols and images.

An Indigenous traditionalist named Becka Charlie welcomes Frank and Eldon into her wilderness cabin with hot food.

Frank walks calmly toward a grizzly bear with arms extended until the bear turns and flees.

Eldon asks Frank to pour out his remaining alcohol and drinks Becka's homemade pain medicine for the first time.

Eldon tells Frank around the campfire that he once killed a man.

Eldon reveals that in Korea he killed his blood brother Jimmy with a knife to silence his screaming during an enemy patrol.

Eldon admits he started drinking again while Angie was pregnant, and she died in childbirth because he was not there to help.

Frank and Eldon hold hands in reconciliation after Eldon tells the full truth about Frank's mother's death.

Eldon dies peacefully in the valley, and Frank buries him with a warrior's farewell.

Frank, a capable sixteen-year-old raised in the wilderness by a white man named Bunky, travels to the mill town of Parson's Gap after his estranged, alcoholic father Eldon summons him. Eldon reveals he is terminally ill and begs Frank to carry him into the wilderness for a traditional Ojibway warrior's burial. Though deeply resentful, Frank agrees and the two set off on horseback, with Frank demonstrating the survival skills Bunky taught him while Eldon begins sharing his painful life story. Along the way they visit ancient painted rocks, are welcomed by a traditionalist woman named Becka Charlie, and Frank faces down a grizzly bear. As Eldon abandons alcohol and drinks Becka's medicine, he confesses his deepest secrets — killing his blood brother in Korea and being absent when Frank's mother Angie died in childbirth. The journey ends in reconciliation: Frank and Eldon hold hands in forgiveness, and Eldon dies peacefully in the valley he loved, buried by the son he had abandoned.

The core journey from Eldon's dying request to his warrior's burial.

Bunky warns Frank that Eldon is unreliable and cautions him against making the trip to Parson's Gap.

Frank camps alone overnight on the way to Parson's Gap, smoking a homemade cigarette and wondering why Eldon summoned him.

Town kids hurl racial slurs at Frank as he rides through Parson's Gap searching for his father.

Frank pays Eldon's overdue alcohol tab at a rundown Parson's Gap bar.

Deirdre purchases the supplies Frank and Eldon need before they set off into the wilderness.

Eldon rides Frank's horse sloppily and smells of alcohol, embarrassing Frank at the start of their journey.

Frank gathers wild berries and mushrooms to make a nutritious paste for the weakening Eldon to eat.

Eldon tells Frank and Becka how his father left for World War II and never came home, dying in combat.

Eldon and Jimmy Weaseltail become blood brothers, get jobs at a logging camp, and master log-booming together.

Eldon and Jimmy beat their supervisor Lester Jenks unconscious after Jenks physically abuses Eldon's mother.

Frank challenges Eldon for never returning to find out what became of his own mother after fleeing Jenks.

Eldon reveals that the Starlight family name comes from a story about stars passing the gift of teaching to humans.

Eldon tells Frank that Frank was named after Benjamin Franklin because of Franklin's courage in helping others.

Frank tells Eldon that carrying guilt over Jimmy's death has made Eldon live like a coward his whole life.

Frank returns home, quietly joins Bunky's carpentry work, then rides into the wilderness and sees a vision of Indigenous ancestors.

Before Frank even reaches his father, Bunky warns him against the trip, knowing Eldon's history of broken promises. Frank camps alone overnight and then endures racial slurs from town kids before finding Eldon, paying his bar tab, and accepting the burden of the warrior's burial request. With Deirdre's help supplying the journey, Frank and Eldon set off, and early camp moments reveal how little Eldon knows about surviving in the wild compared to his son. Eldon's storytelling deepens as he describes his father's death in the Second World War, his brotherhood with Jimmy Weaseltail at a logging camp, and the violence that forced Eldon to flee his mother — prompting Frank to challenge Eldon about never going back to check on her. Later revelations about the meaning of the Starlight name and Frank's own name give the journey a sense of inherited purpose. The pool closes with Frank returning home, quietly rejoining Bunky's daily work, and riding out to witness a vision of Indigenous ancestors still moving through the land.

The surrounding details and supporting moments that shape the journey.

Frank drops out of school, choosing Bunky's wilderness teachings over formal education and classroom life.

Frank tells Eldon that a lifetime of stories will never be enough payment for abandoning Frank as a child.

During an early childhood visit, a drunk Eldon claims to be Frank's father and Frank replies 'Ain't got one.'

Bunky explains to young Frank that Eldon drinks to numb pain, calling Eldon a machine broken deep on the inside.

Eldon's mother tells Eldon and Jimmy to flee after the attack on Jenks, choosing to stay with her abuser over her son.

Frank admits to Eldon at the painted rocks that the thought of watching someone die frightens him.

Frank and Becka talk while Eldon sleeps, and Becka declares that all anyone truly is comes down to their stories.

Becka gives Frank bottles of homemade medicine to ease Eldon's pain as they prepare to leave her cabin.

Bunky confronts lumberjacks humiliating a weaker man named Everett Eames in a bar and forces them to back down.

Angie and Eldon fall in love and make love on Bunky's farm, and Bunky discovers them together.

Bunky generously gives Angie and Eldon one of his trucks so they can start a new life together.

Eldon begins drinking again while Angie is pregnant at their lakeside cabin, unable to face his shame and fear.

Angie dies in childbirth, and the doctor tells Eldon she would have survived if she had arrived at the hospital sooner.

Eldon stands at the cliff edge over the valley with arms outstretched and whispers 'I'm sorry' into the open air.

After burying Eldon, Frank rides into the wilderness and sees a vision of Indigenous families traveling through the valley.

Frank's identity is shaped early by his rejection of formal schooling and his embrace of Bunky's wilderness ethics, but his relationship with Eldon is defined by repeated disappointment and unspoken pain. When Eldon asks for a warrior's burial, Frank lashes out about being abandoned, and their journey forces both men toward truths long buried. At the painted rocks Frank admits his fear of watching someone die, while Becka Charlie offers a different kind of wisdom — that a person's stories are all they truly are — before gifting Frank medicine that will ease Eldon's final days. Eldon's storytelling then spirals into the deepest revelations: his mother's betrayal, the chance love he found with Angie Pratt on Bunky's farm, and the drinking that caused Angie's death in childbirth. Each confession strips away Eldon's excuses and replaces them with raw honesty, culminating in his wordless apology at the cliff's edge. The pool ends with Frank burying his father and then riding out to witness a ghostly procession of Indigenous families still walking through the valley, suggesting that the old ways endure.