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Nomadland opens with on-screen text indicating that the 2011 shutdown of a U.S. Gypsum plant turned Empire, Nevada, the community around which the plant was built, into a ghost town. The opening shot reveals the protagonist Fern, a sixty-something woman, as she opens the door to her storage unit in Empire and rummages through her belongings. It’s winter, snowy, and desolate as the camera follows Fern’s van driving away. Fern checks into an RV campground, cooks in her van on her small stovetop, and eats in silence. The next day, she starts work at an Amazon distribution center. After work, Fern and her friend Linda May spend time in Fern’s van as she shows off new improvements she made to the interior. Fern beams with pride as she shows Linda May a dish set she retrieved from the storage unit, a high school graduation gift from her father. 

While in a superstore, Fern runs into old friends, a mother and her daughter. The mother asks Fern if she’s “still doing the van thing” and admits that she’s worried about Fern, offering her a place to stay. Fern politely declines. 

Now in her own van, Linda May confesses to Fern that before van life, she battled depression and suicidal thoughts while facing unemployment in 2008. After working her whole life, she only had a meager Social Security benefit each month. In the process, she discovered a man named Bob Wells who promoted cost-effective van living that would allow her to travel and not have to work forever. Linda May introduces Fern to the “Rubber Tramp Rendezvous,” a yearly meet-up Bob established. Linda May invites Fern to the next gathering in the desert of Quartzsite, Arizona, though Fern rejects her invitation.  

Fern finishes up her seasonal job at Amazon as the New Year comes and goes. In an employment office, Fern explains to a worker that her late husband worked at the USG mines in Empire while she worked HR before resorting to various part-time jobs once the mine shut down. Fern pleads with the worker for a job with little success due to the tough economic times. The worker suggests Fern register for early retirement, but Fern reveals it’s not enough for her to survive on. Eventually, Fern concedes to joining the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous in Arizona. She reunites with Linda May. Bob explains his vision for RTR as a support system for aging Americans who feel discarded by society after years of work. The group lines up for a chili dinner, and Fern meets a new friend, Swankie. Fern gathers with the group around a campfire as various members reflect on what led them to van life. Each of their experiences reflect a consistent longing to take advantage of life while there’s still time.  

Fern and the fellow RTR members gather for an informational workshop on various topics of van living, from stealth parking to changing a tire. While rummaging through a pile of donated items, Fern meets another friend, Dave, and she trades one of her potholders for one of his can openers. After line dancing with a group at the Quartzsite Yacht Club, Dave asks Fern to dance with him, and she obliges. 

The next day, most of the vans depart the RTR campsite, leaving behind only Fern and Swankie. Fern gets a job at a roadside tourist shop where she encounters a group of hippies. She gives a cigarette lighter to one of them, Derek, as she watches the group with curiosity. Back at the van site, Fern discovers she has a flat tire. She wanders over to Swankie’s van and asks for a ride to town, much to Swankie’s annoyance. To repay her for the inconvenience, Fern agrees to help Swankie repaint her van. Fern spends more time with Swankie, who shows Fern her rock collection and reveals she has terminal lung cancer with only months to live. Swankie shares her plans to travel to Alaska one last time to see the hatching of the swallows. She muses how once she’s gone, she would like her friends to remember her by gathering around a fire to toss rocks in her memory. While Fern cuts Swankie’s hair, Fern opens up about her husband Bo’s final moments in the hospital. Fern confesses she wanted to speed up his death and end his suffering, but Swankie counters, saying that perhaps he wanted to be with Fern as long as he could. Not long after, Fern waves goodbye as Swankie’s van drives away.  

The film shifts as Fern embarks on a journey through national parks and ends up in the Badlands of South Dakota. Life for her is ever-evolving as she takes a job as camp host for an RV campground, and she’s reunited with Linda May. Fern has a chance encounter with Dave at the campground and sees him again when she and Linda May visit the National Grasslands Visitor Center. Later, Fern, Linda May, and Dave take shots at a bar while Linda May reveals her plans to buy property in Arizona to build a fully self-sufficient home she can leave for her grandchildren. In a bittersweet moment, Fern hugs Linda May goodbye as she leaves for Arizona.  

While Fern works to rid her van of an ant infestation, Dave offers his help. He only makes matters worse when he picks up the box of Fern’s prized dishes, and it rips open. Dishes shatter everywhere, and an angered Fern sends Dave away. She works to meticulously glue the dishes back together. Shortly after, Dave and Fern both end up working together at a diner. One day, Dave’s son James comes by looking for his father. Later, Dave reveals to Fern that James asked Dave to come home to be with him and his pregnant wife. Fern encourages him to “go be a grandfather.” Dave invites her to join him, but she turns him down, suggesting that perhaps she will visit.  

Parting ways with Dave, Fern moves on to beet farming in Nebraska. While there, she gets a text from Swankie with a video of the swallow hatching, implying she successfully made it to Alaska. When Fern’s van stalls, she takes it to a mechanic who gives her  a hefty bill. She pleads on the phone with her sister Dolly to lend her money for repairs. Consequently, Fern visits her sister at her home in the suburbs. The visit is a complicated one where Dolly reveals she still cares about Fern, though their relations are clearly strained.  

With her van back up and running, Fern returns to her nomadic way of life. She runs into Derek again, the man she had given her lighter to earlier while working at the roadside shop. The two strike up a heartfelt conversation, and while giving him love advice, Fern recites a Shakespearean sonnet she used for her wedding vows. Fern’s travels continue as she ventures through a redwood forest, down the Pacific coast, and ultimately visits Dave and his family. The time with Dave is revelatory for Fern as she witnesses the love and warmth of Dave’s family and realizes he has given up life on the road for good. 

Fern eventually finds herself back at Amazon, one year after the story began. Fern returns to the Badlands for an RTR gathering as the group honors the passing of Swankie by tossing rocks into the fire. Fern and Bob have a conversation about loss as Bob reveals his son died by suicide. A reflective Fern muses about holding onto her past for so long as Bob suggests nothing is permanent in life. With a newfound resolve, Fern returns to Empire. She decides to forfeit her storage unit, emptying it of her belongings. She walks through the old shuttered U.S. Gypsum plant where she and her husband worked, crying silently. Later, she wanders inside her old vacant home, peering out at the view she loved so much before walking out the back door. In a shot that mirrors the film’s opening, Fern drives away from Empire in her van one final time. 

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