In 1911, after Cora Keenan is disowned by her father and abandoned by her husband in Duluth, Minnesota, she heads north to the Canadian border and the frontier town of Ranier with her three-year-old son Charlie. When Cora accepts a job offer from Bob Williams, a young businessman from Chicago who has a talent for smuggling whiskey and making gin, their lives change dramatically. Based on the true story of Charlie Keenan] Williams, spanning the years from 1907 to 1931, "The Adoption of Charlie Keenan" is a tale of love, power, and prohibition.