Told through the lens of three women with unique personal connections to Alaska's Tongass National Forest, Understory advances the case that saving ancient forests is critical to both the resilience of humans and the future of our planet's climate. At the heart of Understory is Elsa Sebastian, a young local fisherman who grew up "off-grid" in a remote Southeast Alaskan village surrounded by the vast 16.7M acre Tongass National Forest. Upon learning of plans by the U.S. federal government to strip environmental protections for nine million acres of the Tongass, Elsa recruits biologist Dr. Natalie Dawson and artist Mara Menahan to sail into remote parts of the forest and document old growth trees, the devastation of clearcutting, and to learn more about indigenous cultural connections to the Tongass.