Independent, vivacious and sophisticated, on an impulse Nadine Allen decides to accept a teaching position in a remote northern Alaskan village. In her mid-50s, divorced with no living children, she retires early from her lucrative State agency position and looks for adventure, believing that she can maintain herself in the harshness of the Alaskan climate at least for one fall semester. Overwhelmed by additional, unexpected work responsibilities, she's never found a challenge she isn't willing to meet. On the first day of her arrival in this tiny village, she is assisted by a gentle, kind Native Alaskan businessman who becomes her friend. The friendship grows into a melding of cultures. Together they experience intense, unbridled passion and the possibility of honest, permanent love; the thing she really needs, in a place she calls the most magnificent place on the earth.