Early December 1898, City of Valdez, Alaska. Six feet four inches tall in his bare feet, two hundred and forty pounds of beef. (Little) Bob Brughen dog sled man, is badly in need of more work in order to buy enough provisions to sustain his dog team and himself through the fast approaching severe Alaskan winter. After saving a young Inuit man from a whipping courtesy of three local bullies, Bob finds himself befriending him bringing problems upon himself that he could well do without. With a lead dog that seems to hate him, and which he will definitely have to shoot sooner or later. Bob finds the only work available is to deliver a "cargo" to Eagle, some four hundred and sixty miles north of Valdez up in the Yukon territory.should be easy enough. Middle of winter, minus sixty or seventy degrees, eight to ten feet of snow, double even treble that in the drifts, a few blizzards, injured dogs, and probably damn trail thieves, surely not much of a problem. Highs and lows, humour, violence, sadness they're all in this tale of life in one of the harshest environments on earth more than a hundred years ago.