Rylla McCracken dreams of escaping her family's trailer in the Dust States to go to college, but on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, her mother demands she drop out of school to work for Lockburn chemical refinery instead. When Rylla learns Lockburn is planning to dam the Guadalupe River - the last flowing water in Texas - she defies her mother to protest in the state capital. The protest ends in disaster, but her ensuing viral infamy gains...