Pursuing a strategy of colonial expansion in the early 1600s, France encourages its citizens to leave their motherland and venture to the New World. They focus on the St. Lawrence River area and sponsor settlements along its shores, calling this region New France. One of these intrepid individuals is Henry Priest. The government employs Henry, an educated teacher and linguist, to travel to the New World and translate, interpret, and document the Indian languages spoken in and around Quebec City.