"He longed to touch her hand but held back . . . she had a future; his had been taken away."
Finland, 1939. Russia has invaded their homeland and Finnish immigrants from Northern Ontario have returned to join up-Jari Hoivuniemi included. The two brutal wars that follow leave Jari wounded, shell-shocked and disillusioned. Recuperating in Helsinki, and with the war all but lost, he resolves to go AWOL. Objective? Return to Canada to claim the woman he loves-Kerttu.
Hearst, 1944. Jari is back but it's been five years. And what about his emotional state? Is it so repulsive that she will reject him? Terrified of Kerttu's possible reaction, he disappears into the bush to heal. Progress is slow, survival a day-to-day issue. Then, when finally on the mend, a Finn traitor shows up- someone he had once been sworn to kill.
Horsey, 1944. German POW Alfred Reiger is happily waiting out WWII working in a bush camp. But when Nazi fanatics threaten to kill him, he flees into the forest in a snowstorm. His future is bleak-RCMP on his tail, no bush skills, arctic temperatures, finite food supplies. Hopes rise when he stumbles onto an abandoned trapper's shack, but they are quickly dashed by the Finlander who has already occupied it.