An inexplicable ailment was striking down the children of Russia; in less than forty-eight hours, American medical missionary Sarai Curtiss had watched two young patients slip away, and she feared she might have an epidemic on her hands. Yet how could she help anyone in the middle of a violent coup? The new leadership had demanded all foreigners leave the state -- on pain of death. Unwilling to leave her clinic, but unable to combat her enemies alone,...

What happens when her husband climbs off his tractor, goes to medical school, and becomes a bush pilot doctor in the middle of Alaska? She makes a home, cranks homemade ice cream on the frozen Yukon River, sings Christmas carols at 40 below, serves moose roasts, and seeks tips from the Native women on how to keep her four young children warm in the winter.