Abraham Carver, an out-of-work miner back home in Montana, seeks solace and refuge after surviving a mine fi re in Nevada, attempting to outrun his demons. Abe's trajectory intersects with seventy-five-year-old Buck McCafferty, an emblematic rancher leading a hardscrabble hand-to-mouth existence on his family's homestead ranch on the idyllic Smith River.
Set in the present, Benchland tells the intertwined stories of personal trauma and economic struggle amidst the flood of newcomers, recreational interests and billionaires threatening a small ranching community and the traditional ways of living upon the land.