Moments before starting his teaching career in a remote Inuit community in the Arctic, Patrick Hanlon is told that one of his students committed suicide that summer. Finding himself thrust into a situation that he is not prepared for, he is at first paralyzed by the challenge of teaching under these circumstances in the face of the social and technological changes that have impacted his students and their families. Over the course of the two years he spends with his students they cautious earn each other's trust and open up a dialogue around the simple question "Why are we here?", a question that he strives to answer as honestly and meaningfully as possible.

Despite the challenges he remains committed to the goal of making the time that share valuable and in the end he learns his own lessons about life in the Arctic and the struggle to survive.