In 1796, the men at Fort Kenay or Russian Redoubt Saint Nicholas are terrified. A ghost, a woman in a tattered white dress, screams nightly along the banks of the Kenai River below the bluffs where the fort stands. Young Nicholas arrives with Captain Zaikov on his fur trading ship from Russia at the fort. Nicholas is sent by powerful people in Russia to accomplish a task, yet no one knows anything about him. An Orthodox priest is among the arrivals in search of a missing missionary. The fort is in disrepair and the men are terrified that the ghost is the legendary Rasulka from Russian folklore.

As Nicholas embarks on his quest, he befriends Acts Quickly, the son of the Denaina Chief from the nearby Native village. Acts Quickly soon leads Nicholas on a path to solving the mystery of the ghost while revealing the terrifying truth of what is happening at the fort. Nicholas admires the Native youth, who faces the impending doom that has come upon Kenai and will change him into a man. As the Russian and Native worlds collide, Nicholas comes to realize that Acts Quickly will endure like the river and land while the Russians must face the evil they brought with greed, violence and cruelty.