In the bleak Arctic winter, seventy-five-year-old Sa' and eighty-year-old Ch'idzigyaak are abandoned by their nomadic tribe because food had become too scarce to support the group. Armed only with a small hatchet and the knowledge gained by their years of experience, the two determine that if they must die, they will "die trying." This Athabaskan legend is framed powerfully in the written word by Athabaskan native Velma Wallis.