Welcome to Arctic Alaska, a land of twenty-four hour darkness and twenty-four hour light, poverty in the midst of unfathomable wealth, 4,000 year-old traditions, and the latest gadgets, raw whale meat, high fructose corn syrup, pristine beauty and gum wrappers. Follow the lives of nineteen souls in a rare existence where ancient meets present. Some are the original Inupiat Eskimos, some are Outsiders. Some subsist on the bounty of the land and sea, some are outdoors only for the 20- second trot between the car and the building. But all are dependent on what lies beneath--oil, until something happens that threatens to destroy this existence altogether.