On the brink of bankruptcy and desperate to save his family, George Lomack (Marc Blucas) leases his farmland to a natural gas company despite the stern warnings of his neighbor, Kathryn Dolan (Adrienne Barbeau). Once the drilling operation begins, the bonds between the two families are fractured as their farms are transformed into a dusty, noisy hellscape. As the tension grows above ground, the fracking chemicals and explosions unleash a long-dormant organism deep beneath the earth's surface, releasing it into the groundwater. The elders soon become shadows of their former selves while the children are forced to grapple with a fight for survival against a slow-burrowing terror affecting their minds, bodies, and the very nature surrounding them.