In 1995, Cheryl Strayed decides to hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail alone as a way to heal herself following the dissolution of her marriage and the death of her mother. The film presents a multi-linear narrative, presenting events from Cheryl hike in chronological order, with frequent flashbacks to earlier points in her life, featuring her (as a child, teenager, and young adult), her mother and brother, her former husband, and other people she has known..