Episode 1 examines the Sakha horse people and a remote encampment of Eveny reindeer herders in the wild Verkhoyansk Mountains, where these native peoples are embracing the challenges of a post-Soviet Arctic. The show also investigates the ancient shamanic religion of these wild northern lands.

Episode 2 investigates the far north of Greenland, home to the last traditional Inuit hunters who are forced to cope with climate change threatening the Inuit's ancient way of life. But while global warming is causing problems for the hunters, it is providing others with new opportunities, and as the Greenland ice sheet melts, new mineral riches are being revealed.

Episode 3 depicts Alaska, America's last great wilderness, where modern-day pioneers harvest the vast natural wealth of the seas with crab and salmon fishing, while other natural resources, from gold to oil affect ancient native Alaskan traditions, such as the annual whale hunt of the Inupiak people.

Episode 4 examines the travels Gwitchin tribe of Northern Canada and their traditional caribou hunt, which is now is now under threat from oil exploration. The episode also heads south to the tar sands of Alberta, home to the second largest oil reserves in the world, to discover how native people cope when the oil industry moves into their territory.

Traveling to northern Europe, Episode 5 shows how life is changing little at all for some and vastly for others by examining a remote Russian village, deep within the vast boreal forest, the Saami, reindeer herders of Norway who use snow machines, boats and even helicopters to move their animals, and a remote scientific community in Svalbard where scientists study the fragility of the Arctic ecosystem.