As millions of salmon race toward their annual spawning grounds in Alaska's Bristol Bay, Bill Carter learns the ancient, backbreaking trade of the set net fisherman, one of the most exhilarating and dangerous jobs in the world. Housed in a dilapidated shack with no hot water and boarded-up windows that keep the bears at bay, Carter spends his days battling the elements on the river, but as he recounts in this vivid memoir, his years in the isolation of Egegik were enlivened by the warm-hearted fishermen and their harrowing yet humorous stories.