This novel is set in two places, the redwood logging camps of the high Sierras in California, and finally the stony, jagged, tortuous inside sea passage from Seattle to Alaska. This is the life story of a young man and his dog's tenacity to find courage in a brutal, harsh world. His beatings as a child at the hands of a sadistic mother, his near death at the enraged anger of an Indian chief, his attempted suicide, his attempt to kill the dog that eventually saves his life, this book shimmers with the beauty of the Aurora Borealis as well as dark and dank smash-mouth nightmares. Over this panoply of events stands our perceptive orator, Frankie Le Bichon.