Somewhere in the far north of our continent, on the Taimyr Peninsula, much farther to the north than all major settlements, there flows the Popigay River. A small village of reindeer herders, Novy Popigay, sits on its banks. Its inhabitants belong to an endangered northern minority called the Dolgans. Their life in this terrain is an ongoing struggle for survival. The Dolgans’ life and culture—reindeer herding—is now threatened with extinction, as the reindeer have been struck by a mysterious epidemic.