For the last 30 years renowned Utah-based scientist Sam Rushforth has been contracted with the state of Utah to protect its water supply. Every 4 to 6 weeks he drives hundreds of miles from his home to several remote reservoirs in Utah's Wasatch mountain range. He collects an ornate microscopic single celled organism called the diatom. The diatom is the most numerous species on the planet, the basis of the aquatic food chain, produces most of the oxygen on earth, and is a key scientific indicator of the health of a water system. In order to understand our place in the world this mixed-mode 'science film' observes Sam and his team in the wide isolated landscape then in the lab and finally goes through the microscope to the diatom itself.