Everyday Heroes is the true story of racial conflicts in Deer River, Minnesota, in 1985. Racism runs rampant between the whites and the native Ojibwe Americans, including within the school's faculty and students. Various situations intertwine: a promising high school art student dreams of art school but is turned the other way by a guidance counselor, a white family forbids their eight-year-old daughter to play with native students, white teachers fight for the integrity of their students while others fight back. While many of the characters have been fictionalized, four faculty members remain true to life.