While driving a big rig up the Dalton Highway to the North Slope oil fields in Alaska, Birch becomes the “one and only” after a shakes the arctic world asunder. He survives the disaster in his personally-designed 80-foot boat named SASSY (Safety and Satellite Ship/ Yacht) that was destined for offshore oil-field work. With this boat and its sophisticated storehouse of gear, food, and water he begins his quest to find other living people in the changed land and seascape. Birch survives, but where are all the people: Native villages, military radar sites, and oil field infrastructure? Befriended by a lone eagle and a family of wolves, Birch overcomes unique, challenging, life-threatening obstacles with courage, frontier inventiveness, and even a touch of old Alaskan sourdough.