In 1897, just as the famous Klondike Gold Rush is underway, eighteen year old Clint Murkins heads west to escape his orphan past, and a life of drudgery working on a farm. He bids farewell to his adoptive Father, and sets out to make something of himself. As luck would have it, he chooses Seattle as his destination, and quickly establishes a reputation as a hard-working, rambunctious lad. When his employer, one of the local merchants, ends up buying a mining claim for an island far north, Clint is offered an opportunity seemingly too good to pass up! While scores of others are seeking their fortunes in the well-known gold fields, an adventure into a mysterious island off the coast of what's now modern-day Alaska awaits. There are reports that the richest gold veins on Earth exist in this strangely ominous land. But very few of those who've ever gone there are ever seen again. A journal was found, written by the last miner known to have set foot there. In it, he warns of a horrific presence, of evil demonic little creatures that seek to chase and kill whomever they choose. With this knowledge, and the pioneering spirit of the era, they flamboyantly decide to see for themselves. The Native Americans in the area have a name for the evil things lurking there. They call them, the "Kushtakas".