Theodore "Ted" Brooks (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a dentist in Miami, Florida. His picture appears on city buses, in ads promoting his dental practice. When he receives a letter from Alaska one day naming him as the only heir of a Lucy Watkins, his mother reveals that he is adopted. Brooks travels to the village of Tolketna, Alaska, to claim his inheritance left by his late birth mother - seven Siberian Huskies and a Border Collie - and discovers his roots. Totally out of his element, he has to face challenges he has never dreamed of: blizzards, thin ice, an intimidating, crusty old mountain man called Thunder Jack (played by James Coburn in one of his final roles), and the aggressive, defiant lead dog, Demon. All of this happens with the buzzing excitement of the Arctic Challenge Sled Dog Race which is only two weeks away.

During his stay in Tolketna, Brooks tries to find the reason he was given up for adoption, including any information about his father. Ted meets a barmaid named Barb who was a friend of his late birth mother Lucy. She helps Ted deal with the dogs and teaches him how to drive a sled, and falls in love with him during the course of the movie. Ted continues to encounter Thunder Jack, who wants all of his late mother's sled dogs, especially Demon. (Lucy was once a winner of the Arctic Challenge.)

Eventually Brooks learns from Barb that Thunder Jack is his real father. Brooks feels that the truth is worth the dogs themselves, and trades them to Thunder Jack. Jack tells Ted that he and Lucy stayed in a cave during one of the Arctic Challenges. It is there that Ted was conceived. Lucy leaves after the race and gives Ted up for adoption.

With Demon, Thunder Jack takes part in the Arctic Challenge Race but is unable to finish it because of a storm. Meanwhile Brooks, who has returned home to Miami, is learning that his personal journey isn't yet finished. Infuriated by evidence found proving that Thunder Jack was at the hospital when he was born, Brooks returns to Alaska looking for answers. When he learns of the missing musher and his team, he feels that this may be the opportunity to save a man, and perhaps find out the whole truth once and for all.

Brooks sets out to rescue his father, with Nana as the lead dog. He finds Jack in the old cave, who confirms that he had been there when Ted was born. Jack reveals that they agreed then that neither one of them could raise a baby, and confesses his love for Lucy. Ted finds out the reason for Demon's bad temper is the pain caused by a bad tooth. He pulls it out and Demon becomes a friendly dog. During the journey back, the sled nearly goes over a cliff into a river but the dogs pull it back up. Ted brings Jack across the finish line.

Ted and Barb get married and Nana and Demon have four puppies. Now having grown to love the region, Brooks moves his practice to it with his wife, who is pregnant at the end of the film, as his secretary.

The movie ends with Ted's cousin Rupert becoming the new famous Miami dentist with his face on every bus.