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This book was so very hard to read. The year is 1974 and Ernt Allbright, his wife Cora, and thirteen year old daughter Leni, head to Alaska to make a new start. Ernt is a former POW, with nightmares, psychosis, and anger issues and when he's at his worst he is beating his wife to a pulp, too many times to count. Cora seems to think anytime that Ernt hurts her that it's her fault and doesn't seem to have it in her to realize that her daughter needs to be protected from Ernt, his crazy ideas, and his violent ways.

All of Ernt's troubles are worse during the shorter days of winter and his problems are magnified by the even shorter days of Alaska, in the winter. The family is in no way prepared for the hardships they will face on the remote property that an army buddy left to Ernt. Still, the hardy people that live in that area know everyone must work together to survive this wilderness and they are willing to help Ernt and his family, if only Ernt will accept help. But Ernt wants no help even though he desperately needs it, for his mental illness problems, for surviving the Alaskan wilderness, for his inability to get along with others.

Really this book is about Leni and how she survives life with a mentally ill father and a mother who is incapable of protecting her child from domestic violence. Cora "could" protect her child if she wanted to do so but Cora is damaged too and won't put her child ahead of the wants of Ernt. Alaska is a character in this book, along with the interesting townsfolk and neighbors. Leni finds and loses love thanks to her father and the story tells her struggles through the years. Once she is away from Alaska it never leaves her mind and it's clear that it will always be a part of her.