Dmitriana Petrovna, a homesick Russian immigrant stranded in 1920s New York, sets out to return home by walking across the continent to Alaska. Undeterred by fierce weather, ravening bears and hunger, she only gets as far as the British Columbia wilderness when winter sets in. For her own safety, she is jailed for vagrancy.

 

Compassionate townsfolk take pity, including Alexander MacQuire, a charismatic telegrapher, who is smitten, but Dmitriana’s stony resolve frustrates him. Helplessly in love, he watches her set off in the spring.

 

Then, impulsively, he hurries to catch up, but stumbles and falls into white water. Told he is missing, she considers going back-- but instead struggles on, eventually reaching the Bering Strait. There, on the shore opposite Siberia, she is aghast to find MacQuire, bedraggled but beaming, waiting for her. “The river spit me back up,” he explains.

 

Hoping to hire a boat, she is confounded. Hoping she won’t find one, he begs her to stay.

 

Then a fisherman offers her a ride.