In 2009, Delaware River Basin native Josh Fox was presented with an interesting proposal: lease his family lands to a natural gas company for a new method of drilling called hydraulic fracturing, and get a check for $100,000. He wouldn't have to do anything but sit back and collect the money. Curious about the process, Fox embarks on an exploration of other areas where natural gas drilling was already in progress, to observe firsthand any potential downsides. In Dimock, Pennsylvania, a town surrounded by fracking activity, he hears stories of wells exploding, black water, flammable drinking water, headaches, pains, long-term sickness. Fox goes on to tour 25 states, cataloging an endless string of frustrated and sick Americans whose land has become toxic and explaining the legislation pushed through by former vice president Dick Cheney, exempting energy companies from key environmental acts--exemptions that make fracking invisible to any regulation or monitoring. Fox becomes an advocate for the cause of the people whose complaints are ignored by the natural gas corporations and the American government. The film documents the pitfalls and perils--borne of avarice of the most bloodless, ruthless kind--of the largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in American history, with the potential to poison millions.