An elderly Nenets woman in teepee on northern Russia's Yamal Peninsula recounts her early life betrothed to a deity for the entertainment of a blind young girl. In the Nenets culture, a girl child can be married to holiest of holies, Num, before or after her birth. Lonely old Numd' Syarda (which means, literally, 'tied to Num') entertains the blind young Ilne ('giver of life') with stories of how she became one of these chosen few.

An anthology of stories about the indigenous Nenet peoples of the Northern Russian tundra, and how their way of life was disrupted by the advent of Soviet power.