After studying in Seattle for five years Julie returns to the Alaska territory to begin her career as a public health nurse She and her mother had dreamed of the day when Julie smart Eskimo herself would bring both health care and Gods Word to the Eskimo villiages scattered around Nome But now Julies mother is dead and the long treks across the Alaskan wilderness only accentuate her loneliness Her discomfort is compounded by Sam Curtiss who persists in proposing a marriage that Julie fears would end her career An outbreak of diptheria banishes such troubles from Julies mind The only cure lies hundreds of miles away across the frozen frontier the only beacon to pinpoint the blackness the lights from rustic cabin windows