This documentary explores how American mountain men built lives in some of the most remote wilderness of the nineteenth-century American frontier. Far from towns and reliable supplies, they had to find food, secure clean water, build shelter, make fires, navigate unfamiliar country, and protect themselves from the dangers of the wilderness. The film follows the practical skills and daily routines that allowed these isolated frontiersmen to survive for months or even years beyond the edge of civilization. Told in a calm and atmospheric style, it offers a glimpse into the resourcefulness, hardships, and remarkable independence of life in the American wilderness.