Set in Canada (New France) in 1634 (in the period of conflicts known as the Beaver Wars), the film begins in the settlement that will one day become Quebec City. Jesuit missionaries are trying to encourage the local Algonquin people First Nations to embrace Christianity, with thus far only limited results. Samuel de Champlain, founder of the settlement, sends Father LaForgue, a young Jesuit priest, to find a distant Mission (Christian) in a Wyandot people village. With winter approaching, the journey will be difficult and cover as much as 1500 miles.