Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart - he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone - but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl,...

In a gritty 1953 paper mill town in Ohio, Donna Lane is yearning to break free of the strictures of her family and go to design school, but she feels obligated to stay and care for her helpless father and her younger brother, Will. When Will decides that he wants to earn a deed to one square inch of the Alaskan Territory through a cereal company and TV show promotion, Donna at first finds his quest silly. But when he becomes ill, she decides to help...