Cap is a gold prospector braving the harsh winter of the Klondike Gold Rush. Bound by a strict personal code of honor, he values a given promise as an unpaid debt. He endures numbing cold and dwindling rations as he pushes across the Dawson trail, determined to survive the formidable Yukon wilderness and keep his word.

Sam McGee is a gold-seeker lured to the Klondike by the spell of easy riches. Originally from the warm climate of Plumtree, Tennessee, he suffers immensely in the freezing environment. His deep dread of ending up in an icy grave becomes his defining fixation as the brutal winter wears him down.

The pack of sled dogs travels along the Dawson trail. Driven entirely by basic instincts for survival, they burrow into the snow to maintain body heat and howl into the long nights. They remain completely indifferent to the human dramas and promises occupying the prospectors.