In 1981, Australian Tony Rinaudo arrives in Niger as a young agricultural scientist to combat the growing spread of deserts and the misery of the population. Radical clearing has left the land desolate and once-fertile soil depleted. But Rinaudo's attempts to stop the desert by planting trees fail and nearly all of his seedlings die back. Then he notices a massive root network beneath the supposedly dead soil - a discovery that results in an unprecedented greening campaign and gives countless people new hope.