Gwyn Hillerman acts as a nurse at her father's medical practice in 1935 rural Alaska. Her mother, hating Alaska, had returned to Chicago with Gwyn's younger sister. There Sophia's engagement to Dr. Jeremiah Vaughan ends when he loses his medical license after the death of an affluent patient. Then the government decides to send a group of families to Alaska for a better life, and Dr. Hillerman urges Jeremiah to join his practice.