The premise of this show is that all of the men in a wagon party are killed, leaving the women and girls in the party to fend for themselves in the wilds of 19th century Alberta. Two young girls (13-15 years old) are trafficked as a result of being purchased by a man who intends to force them into sex work: they are saved from this fate by the female lead adopting them, but the man who bought/trafficked them continues to be a main character in the series. The same male antagonist tells the displaced women and girls that he will only offer them aid and shelter in exchange for them becoming sex workers in his brothel. The same male antagonist and his wife use the two previously mentioned child characters to force the female protagonist who adopted them into forced sex work: she escapes before actually being forced to do anything. Another character is forced into sex work against her will to support her children. A pregnant girl is later revealed to only be about 15 years old: she is only spared forced prostitution because she goes into labour. The girl then has her child taken from her against her will so that the brothel owner and his wife can pose him as their son. This same character, in a later episode, has a relationship with an intellectually disabled man in his 20s: this relationship is treated as a positive thing. Another female character is revealed to be 'married' to her adoptive father following her adoptive mother's death. The adoptive father's character is portrayed as having no interest in a sexual relationship with his adoptive child, however other characters try to push them to consummate their marriage and the female character is shown at one point to be willing to do so. A 15-year-old character gets her first period and several episodes later is put in an arranged engagement to a man in his 30s as a trade for the man investing in the town. It is later revealed that this man has been molesting his teenage niece for years and intended to keep both girls in a harem. A transgender male character is stripped in front of strangers and violently sexually assaulted and misgendered. The aggressor is shot in the head and mortally wounded; it is unclear whether the rape attempt is stopped in time or not.