Barkskins is set in Wobik, a small settlement in what is now the Canadian province of Quebec. As the Catholic Church sends Jesuit priests to convert the indigenous people, France sends indentured servants to populate its territory, along with "Filles Du Roi" ("Daughters of the King"), young women to be matched with husbands, start families, and help the colonies prosper. This disparate group of outcasts, rogues, and innocents must navigate brutal hardships, competing interests, and tangled loyalties at the crossroads of civilization: 1690s New France.