When Sedna, Raven Woman, and her clan of Inuit people discover a Viking ship wrecked on the shores of their Arctic island in the spring of 975 AD, Sedna is warned by the Raven Mother not to let her people kill the lone Norseman aboard. Heeding the warning, she stands between him and her angry tribe, causing her people to shun and distrust her. Thanks to her intervention, the Viking, Rolv, lives to repair his ship and sail to his home on a nearby island, where he has been banished for a year by his father, Eric the Red, in Greenland. When Rolv leaves Sedna's tribe, he kidnaps her, certain that her own people will slay her as punishment for defending an outsider. But he knows nothing of how to survive in the harsh environment and, without Sedna, would surely perish during the coming winter. But even if she can keep this strong, stubborn Norseman fed, clothed, and warm, despite the dangers of her icy home, how can she keep him safe from her people who continually stalk them and what will she do with her heart, when he leaves her world to return to his father in Greenland once the spring has come again?