Barkskins is set in the late 1600s in Wobik, a small settlement in what is now the Canadian province of Quebec. While the Catholic Church sends Jesuit priests to convert the natives, France sends indentured laborers to populate its territory, along with "Filles du Roi" ("Daughters of the King"), young women who are married off and forced to start families to protect the colonies. to bloom. This disparate group of outcasts, ruffians and innocents must endure cruel hardships in which conflicting interests come into play.