After being released from prison following a seven-year sentence for the $250,000 robbery of an armed truck, Mike Jarvis is continually hounded at his sister Lois's home in Greenport, Washington by Carter and Landers, two insurance investigators who are determined to retrieve the stolen money. Mike recovers the money from its hiding spot above his mother's grave, and heads for Nome, Alaska, to meet up with his partner-in-crime, Frank Hogg. Once there, a hotel clerk tells Mike that Frank is hiding from the police in a distant Eskimo village. Mike hires an Eskimo guide to take him to Frank, but the guide deserts him in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness after being whipped for overturning their dogsled. He is fortunate enough, however, to stumble across Reverend John Douglas, a missionary, who is on his way to the Eskimo village to treat Frank for diphtheria. When Douglas is killed in an accident on the way to the village, Mike is forced once again to struggle alone in the Arctic wasteland, and along the way, loses his bag of money. He miraculously makes his way to the Eskimo village just in time for Frank's funeral. Mike then assumes Douglas' identity and, with his money seemingly lost forever, takes up the missionary's work at the village. He soon becomes romantically involved with Narana, a Westernized Eskimo woman. Mike confesses his past to Narana, but she tells him that his good work for the village is all that matters to her. Meanwhile, Carter and Landers arrive in Nome in their continued search for Mike, and learn from the Eskimo guide that he is somewhere in the Alaskan wilderness. Later, in the spring, Tooyuk, Narana's ex-boyfriend, returns from a trip to Nome with the stolen money, having found Mike's bag along the trail. As soon as he is reunited with his riches, Mike prepares to return home, but Narana refuses to go with him. When Carter and Landers arrive at the village, Mike flees on his own, but is trapped when the ice starts to break around him. As Narana, Tooyuk, and the insurance investigators watch, Mike dies in the freezing Arctic waters.
