A TV reporter arrives in the quiet town of Stepford to launch an investigation into why the town has the lowest divorce and crime rates in America. However, she begins to notice some bizarre behavior in the women of the town, discovering that Stepford is not as clean-cut as it seems.

It's the winter of 1935 and Max Brown is newly arrived in Willowgreen, Saskatchewan - a rural Canadian prairie town - on his first teaching job in a one room schoolhouse. He quickly realizes that this is not a dream situation: the winter is harsher than he's ever experienced, he's living in the basement of the school, the older of his students treat him poorly and his wages are paltry if and when he ever does get paid.