With only about an hour of sunshine each day in Cicely, Joel is desperate to get to Juneau for an annual medical conference. Unfortunately, a storm front hits and Maggie is unable to fly. To make matters worse, Joel's truck won't start and they hole up in the airport cabin to wait out the storm. Discovering a stash of delicacies, Joel and Maggie snuggle in for a romantic night, until they are caught in an intimate kiss when Ed, who had been filming in the woods and became lost, shows up on the doorstep. Ed eats their dinner, joins them for Monopoly, and falls blissfully asleep while the couple wonder what become of their evening for two. To help pass the long sunless days during cabin-fever season, Ruth-Anne begins the task of learning Italian so she can read Dante in its original form. She struggles with it until Shelly reveals a fluent capability and agrees to be Ruth-Anne's unlikely study parmer. Frustrated at her own slow progress, Ruth-Anne becomes jealous, but finally realizes to accept what you're given and enjoys the rhapsody of the language as Shelly recites the work to her. When Walt gets depressed due to the lack of sunlight, Joel fits him with a special light visor. He immediately becomes addicted to the contraption and abuses it by increasing the doses well above the prescribed levels. Feeling invincible, he chops wood without gloves and gets into a fender bender with a snow plow. Chris and Holling finally stage an intervention and Walt agrees to use the visor in doses, monitored by Marilyn.

Maurice sends Ed to bring Joel back from Manonash village, a native settlement up the river, after he doesn't return home from a house call. Out of his element, Ed heads upstream along the totem pole-dotted shore complete with bear skulls on poles until he arrives at the tiny primitive village. He discovers Joel, looking wild and unshaven, living amongst the natives speaking fluent Tlingit and living in a barren hut with absolutely no amenities. While he tans hides, spears fish, dries salmon and cans preserves, Joel describes to Ed the week that changed his life. Joel and Maggie are in the awkward adjustment period of living together and, to make matters worse, whenever they become affectionate, firearms randomly discharge threatening their safety. While Joel becomes obsessed and anxious, Maggie finds it arousing and a wicked fight ensues. When she asks him to move out, he is devastated but now realizes that it was the most loving thing she ever did for him by giving him nothing ... just time to be. Meanwhile, Chris comes into some cash and, growing out of the "crash pad" mentality, hires Willy to remodel his trailer complete with an enclosed patio and outdoor refrigerator. After Willy floods the entire place, the stress of living in chaos starts to take atoll on the normally easy-going Chris. Homeless and disenfranchised, Chris finally gives into the chaos and becomes a free man because he feels that you have to lose your mind before you can find it. While Walt is away securing traplines for the winter, Ruth-Anne is distracted and not her usual self. After struggling to fight the knowledge that she is deeply in love, she gives into her feelings and sends a message to Walt over KBHR's trapline news to come home.