The book opens with 14-year-old Russel Susskit, an Inuit boy, waking up and rolling off his bunk in a government-issued winter house that he lives in with his father. His mother left years ago with a white trapper. Russel and his father live on the seacoast in Alaska in a small Inuit village during the winter and at a fish-camp during the summer. It is still dark when he gets up, and he hears his father coughing. His father is a chain-smoker, rolling cigarettes with tobacco brought to his village from the outside world, far from their small Inuit village. His father used to drink but gave up alcohol after white missionaries came to their village and introduced him to Jesus and religious teachings, including the evils of drinking alcohol. Russel does not understand his father’s devotion to Jesus. He resents the religious pictures sent to his father from the “outside” but is pleased his father gave up alcohol. Russel hears the fire being lit and knows that the snowmachines, also from “outside,” will be starting up soon. He hates the snowmachines because they are loud and scare the seals, but because there are almost no dog teams in the village now, Russel also owns a snowmachine to get around.