A sweeping adventure saga in the tradition of White Fang and The Call of the Wild, bringing to vivid life the cold, bleak, unforgiving Alaskan wilderness and the colorful, desperately uncertain lives of both natives and intruders. On a lark, the novel's hero, Christopher Bellew, a San Francisco newspaperman and dandy, sets off on what he believes will be a brief trek into the Klondike to cover the latest gold rush. The lark turns into a rough, raw adventure that transforms the young chekako (tenderfoot) into a tough, hardened survivor.