In the Missouri wilderness of 1855, woodcutter Salem Greene leaves his family alone for two days, then returns to find his wife and nine-year-old daughter brutally raped and murdered. His son is gone, presumed dead. Greene finds the perpetrators and exacts a horrific retribution. Feeling unfit to live with others, he goes into exile and tries to forget the past. Unbeknownst to Greene, his twelve-year-old son Martin escaped and lives in a cave two miles away, engaging in a primal search for food each day. Will their paths cross again?