Pierre Ryder has been forged by the sternest of frontier Jesuits for the hard life of a missionary priest in the frozen wastes of the Far North. Although a novice short of his vows, he is a young David, mighty in faith and learning, able to ride any horse, to run a hundred miles a day behind a dog-team, to fight skillfully, and to shoot unerringly. Yet he remains gentle and unaffected. Into this life a thunderbolt descends: a letter from his father, long thought dead, who lies dying of bullet wound. Ignoring the pleas of the good priests, Pierre rides at once to avenge his father, into a life and a country far different from all he has ever known. He takes only the cross of Meilan, great in blessing and great in burden. When he meets Jacqueline Boone-Jack-his life and hers are changed forever.