Far to the north, on the Taimyr Peninsula, much further north than any major settlement, the Popigai River flows. On the banks of the river is a small village of reindeer herders, Novy Popigai. Its inhabitants belong to a small, disappearing northern people called the Dolgans. Life in these places is an incessant struggle for existence. The basis of Dolgans' life and culture – reindeer herding – is now under threat of extinction: the reindeer have been struck by a mysterious epidemic.
