In 1911, a young John Shaw from South Carolina had his first taste of flying. In 1926, two years after the plane crash death of his best friend, he attempted a solo flight record in a refitted 1923 Curtiss Jenny. Then, with half the journey completed, his plane was caught in a storm, went down, and for seventeen years he was listed as missing, presumed dead. 'The Longest Winter' is a work of fiction, the tale of one man's life. His story is one of despair and courage, tragedy and triumph-stranded on an uncharted rocky island, his body broken by the crash, John is adopted into a tribe of Aleuts, until the evacuation of the Aleutian Islands in May 1943. This is John's story.