Vuka's elopement in 1928 caused a major scandal in a small Adriatic port. Wise Mike, a mature sourdough, organized her ?voluntary kidnapping? and took her on a venturesome journey to Alaska, where he had struck gold. In defying local customs and in breaking a taboo, she chose personal happiness over family constraints. She fell in love with the adventurer, endured frigid nights and freezing winds, and fully apprehended the majestic beauty of a distant frontier. The text traces the life story of this Southern Slav woman without formal education but far ahead of her time. Independent and wealthy, she was most at ease at her Fairbanks Creek, in the midst of astonishing nature and at peace with the essential. There is an endowment in her name at a university in California entitled the Power of Good.