Inspired by the 1951 non-fiction account by psychoanalyst Georges Devereux,"Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian," the film follows the true story of Picard (Del Toro), a Plains Indian of the Blackfeet state, as he returns from WWII and begins undergoing unexplainable symptoms shortly afterwards. He travels into the renowned cold temperatures Hospital at Topeka, Kansas, where he meets Devereux (Amalric), thus beginning a professional and individual friendship guided by compassion and knowledge of indigenous American culture.