Just North of Dillingham, Alaska, there lives a reclusive poet named Shane Helnsley. Nobody knows what he is about or even what he looks like. The rumors about him are rampant and quite revolting, but his works are considered masterpieces and are highly sought after. Marren Lang is the writer hired by Helnsley to interview him, a task that she is not at all looking forward to. What Lang encounters in Alaska is the last thing she could ever have expected. The warnings about the old toothless pervert who lives like a savage are the least of her worries. Within hours of her arrival in the new landscape she learns she has much more to contend with. Helnsley teaches Lang to rudely stare down her own demons and face truths that are rarely respected when numbed by civilized society. Ice and a Curious Man melts selfishness down to an unthreatening puddle and bravely shouts that no book can ever be judged by its cover.