Sarah Smith doesn't remember much about her early years. She knows her mother died when she was six, and her father moved her and her younger brother to Northern Idaho. Once there, her life changed drastically.
The only vivid memory she has of her early childhood is time spent with her best friend Juniper Holland. In her letters to Juniper, Sarah reveals her innermost thoughts and feelings about her reclusive life with three younger brothers in under the rigid oppression of her father and stepmother, who call themselves Separatists. Their lives are turned upside down by an FBI investigation of her father's association with members of the Aryan Nation. When he refuses to be arrested on an illegal weapons charge, a standoff occurs. As the tension and violence escalate, Sarah faces life and death decisions in order to survive.