In 1926, war veterans Robert Butcher (Brendan Fehr) and Arthur Lambden (Brendan Fletcher) are the leaders of Long Point Camp in Northern Ontario. Their charges are teenage boys who lost fathers in the war and family and friends to the Spanish Flu Epidemic.

They're having the time of their lives when Butcher decides to take Lambden and 11 of the boys out in a war canoe to cross the lake just before dark falls. When a freak summer storm suddenly hits, their holiday descends into a soul-shuddering fight for survival.