Anna, a young Aleutian girl, watches in horror as everything and everyone dear to her is swept away in a tsunami. Only she and her small sister Iya are left, and they must struggle on alone. A white-skinned, blue-eyed outsider seems to want to help, but Anna mistrusts Erik and his God.

As the two Alaskan girls and the Norwegian form an unlikely bond, they face a long winter, predators, starvation, and rejection. Erik seems to believe in the white man's God, the God that crushed Anna's hopes and dreams.

Can she accept Erik and his God, or will she be alone forever?