Fed up with the world, Teddy moves to Siberia in the middle of winter to live in a hut by the shore of Lake Baikal. Initially he is elated with his new life, but he soon finds himself confronted with the less glossy side of living in the wild. When he gets lost in a blizzard, he prepares to die until Aleksei, a Russian convict living hidden away in the forest nearby, rescues him. The two men soon form an unlikely friendship in the harsh wilderness.