After the Indian tribes were vanquished in North America, the governments of the US and Canada systematically destroyed their cultures as well. Young children were taken away from the tribes and sent to missionary and government residential schools where they were not allowed to use their native language. By the time the schools closed in the 1960's, six generations had grown up without their parents, in alien environments. Having no paVideo rental models, they became poor parents themselves, prey to alcoholism and apt to be abusive. Often their babies would be whisked away for adoption by stable white families by social workers who deemed their Indian families unlikely to provide an appropriate environment. Thus the tribes would lose many of their children.

This film looks at several families where adults have been repatriated. Katrina at 16 months was adopted by a loving Scottish family which returned with her to Scotland. As she grew up, she felt increasingly alienated from the white society that surrounded her. Now a mother of a four-year-old she returns to Alert Bay to find her roots. The film shows that it is a complicated emotional process to re-establish native ties on a reservation.

In Idaho a young Lakota boy is being claimed by his biological father. The white adoptive parents fear the trauma of separation could be devastating. There is an active tribal organization that scours the world for lost Native children and fosters repatriation. The film reveals both well meaning and exploitive adoptive families and the wrenching process of trying to heal old wounds.