Plot: Ray Eddy lives in a broken down mobile home with her husband Troy, and their two children, fifteen year old Troy Jr. (T.J.) and five year old Ricky, in the border town of Massena, New York. Just before Christmas, Troy, a gambling addict, deserts the family to an unknown destination like he has many times before to gamble away the family's money, which is little to begin with. The final payment is due on the new larger and more modern mobile home on which they've placed a down payment, money which Ray doesn't have, the substantial down payment which will be forfeited if the balance is not paid when due. Her job as a part-time clerk at a dollar store - a job which she's had for two years, and where she has long been promised full-time status without it happening - isn't even enough to put food on the table, she feeding the kids popcorn and Tang for dinner. Ray has an antagonistic initial chance encounter with a young Mohawk woman named Lila Littlewolf, she widowed with a one year old son, Jake. Lila, much like Ray, is in dire financial straits, with her mother-in-law having assumed custody of Jake. Despite their antagonistic feeling toward each other, Ray ends up joining Lila in her illegal activities in smuggling illegal aliens into the US from Canada driving across the frozen St. Lawrence River through the Mohawk Reservation, which straddles the border. Lila is doing it so that she can get Jake back from her mother-in-law, while Ray, knowing the dangers, only plans to do it until the final mobile home payment is made. Ray needs Lila as she knows the smugglers involved and knows the process, while Lila needs Ray as no one on the reservation will sell her a suitable car - with a trunk that opens with a pop button - knowing that she would be using it for such illegal activity, she having been caught and arrested before. Ray also being Caucasian lends an air of legitimacy to Lila's movements. As they get closer and closer to their end goals, Ray and Lila get a clearer picture of the very human stories of the people with who they are involved, and they may be willing to take increasingly greater risks to reach those goals faster. Through it all, T.J., who has no idea of his mother's illegal activities, may be ill prepared to be the man of the house, both in being the sole caregiver to Ricky and dealing with any issues of a financial nature and/or with the broken down mobile home.
Alternative Plot: After her husband deserts her, working-class mother Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) is in great need of money to find a home. Lured by the possibility of easy cash, Ray joins Lila (Misty Upham) a widowed Mohawk who earns a living by smuggling immigrants from Canada to the U.S. across the St. Lawrence.
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