By the spring of 1885, things are not going well for Big Bear's band of Plains Cree. The Canadian government has not provided adequate famine relief. Big Bear failed to renegotiate Treaty Number 6 and get a better deal for his people. The band has yet to be assigned a reserve of its own. The young men, who have lost faith in their aging political chief, now turn to their war chief, Wandering Spirit, for a different solution. Wandering Spirit erects a war lodge. This means that he, and not Big Bear, is in control of the band. Wandering Spirit holds an all-night war dance on April 1, 1885. Throughout the night he says, "I am going to eat two-legged meat; if you don't want to join me, then go home and put on your wives' dresses!"

At dawn, Wandering Spirit leads his warriors into nearby Frog Lake where he wakes Thomas Quinn, the Indian Agent, and demands food. When Quinn refuses to comply, he is taken prisoner together with all the whites and Métis in the settlement. The warriors help themselves to all available food and goods, including the priests' ceremonial wine and the Hudson's Bay posts' two cases of painkiller, a concoction made up of 90-per-cent alcohol. When Wandering Spirit tries to take the prisoners back to the Cree camp, Quinn refuses to go. Wandering Spirit shoots him, setting off a killing spree that doesn't stop until six men, two women, and two priests are dead. Though Big Bear is present and tries to prevent the massacre, no one listens to him.

When news of the Métis defeat at Batoche arrives, Big Bear, Wandering Spirit, and some of the warriors surrender to Canadian authorities. All go on trial. Big Bear is convicted of treason-felony and receives a sentence of three years hard labour. Wandering Spirit and seven others are convicted of murder and hanged in a mass execution at Battleford. Meanwhile, Big Bear's son, Imasees, leads the rest of the Big Bear band into Montana, where the U.S. government eventually assigns them a reservation.