After spending 28 years living in the Inupiat Eskimo community of Barrow, Elise Sereni Patkotak decided it was time to return to the big city. Since New York City, the place she'd left so long ago, seemed a bit scary after living in a state with a population less than that of Brooklyn, she chose to move to Anchorage and gently get back into life amidst coffee stands, malls, fresh produce and highways. The transition was not always easy.

This book is a look back at the ten year adjustment she made to wearing bras, experiencing a sun that actually brought heat and watching her parrots discover the feeling of going outside and not freezing to death. It is also a series of ruminations on life as she found it now that she is entering what she likes to refer to as "extreme middle age."