The author takes you on his 1928 account of a trip up the South Nahanni River in the NW Terrritory.  Today the lower S.Nahanni is a wilderness preserve.  Back then it was a legendary river of no return.  The first year, he canoes up the Spring swollen river to scout and returns before Fall.  The second year he partners with a fur trapper and builds a cabin.  When his partner doesn't return from Fort Simpson on a late Fall run for supplies, he finds he must embark on his own in the dead of winter or face starvation.

-YB