While on a high school camping trip, 16-year-old Penelope feels called to abandon her family and friends to explore a new life in the wild unknown.
Penelope makes it through her first night in the forest and spends a day acquiring new wilderness skills through exhausting trial and error.
Just as she's starting to gain control of her environment, Penelope confronts a new challenge when an uninvited guest crashes her campsite.
Headed out for supplies, Penelope encounters a forest denizen who teaches her about the spiritual connections found within nature - and within people.
A storm of rain and raw emotions leaves Penelope fighting to retain a sense of purpose and the resolve needed to forge her own place in the woods.
Meeting a group of teenagers on their own backpacking journey interrupts Penelope's plans and complicates her determination to go it alone.
Penelope struggles to endure as winter brings freezing temperatures, scarce food and an unforeseen danger that threatens to change everything.
In desperate circumstances, Penelope's survival hinges on a single decision. An impulse to check in on her former life leads to a shocking discovery.