Raw men

A young, college-bred man embarks on an Arctic trading voyage aboard an ice-battered schooner and, after the ship is crushed by pack ice, struggles to survive amid shattered floes. As he confronts resentful memories of his father and judges the lowly crew — a blue-eyed Swede, an old engineer, a grease-streaked Eskimo — he witnesses courage and self-sacrifice during the wreck. Left with only scant provisions clutched by the native, he follows the Eskimo across the ice and reevaluates competing moral codes: the instinct of self-preservation versus an ethic of duty and refinement. Observing the others' choices prompts his humility and a decision to uphold his civilized principles.