When a rural state's embattled governor seeks to boost his re-election chances by revitalizing his state's most impoverished region with a massive penitentiary project, a beleaguered farmer determined to keep her farm in family hands is pitted against her neighbors who are desperate to cash out of their ruined farms. Filmed on actual farms with the support of the Virginia Film Office, "Shifting Grounds" cast people of the community alongside its actors to mimic cinéma vérité in depicting the relentless struggle between individual rights and the public interest.