The film is set in (and was shot on location in) Utqiagvik, Alaska, MacLean's home town, and follows two Iñupiaq teenagers who, while on a seal hunt, accidentally kill one of their friends in a fight.

The two remaining friends, Qalli (Josiah Patkotak) and Aivaaq (Frank Qutuq Irelan), report the death as an accident out of fear and panic.

Qalli struggles to deal with his own guilt and loss while weaving a wider web of lies to handle his father's suspicion and investigation of the day's events.

Club gave the movie a B+ rating, remarking "The performances, all from non-professional local actors, are noticeably uneven, but the film is as much a portrait of a place as it is a narrative, and cinematographer Lol Crawley shoots the white-on-white polar expanses like they’re vistas stretching to the ends of the earth—which in a way, they are.

"[6] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the film for its suspense and found the local actors convincing, noting that "guilt almost paralyzes Qalli".