A wealthy French family of settlers is driven out of Missouri during the height of the American Civil War and must embark on a long and dangerous journey eastward: Led by the taciturn but charismatic mercenary cowboy Victor, and with a bloodthirsty group of outlaws on their trail, the family sees its internal bourgeois power structures crumble. Incidentally, all this allows daughter Abigail to find herself in the dangerous freedom of the Wild West. With Savage State, director David Perrault has created a compelling revisionist western with a feminist slant.