At twenty-four, Connie and her young husband, Harmon "Bud" Helmericks, set out from Fairbanks, Alaska in a homemade canoe. Paddling down the Tanana and into the great Yukon River, they leave their known world behind. Five months later, they portage a hundred miles across muskeg and icing ponds to the Kuskokwim River where they battle shifting ice into the little town of Bethel near the Bering Sea. Along the journey they encounter Native villages and isolated settlements, learning from experience and the kindness of strangers. Connie's honest and lyrical voice depicts a changing Alaska and its endangered people during a pivotal moment in history.