Plot

When a Miami dentist inherits a team of sled dogs, he's got to learn the trade or lose his pack to a crusty mountain man.

When Miami dentist Ted Brooks learns that his birth mother has passed away and that he was named in her will, he travels to Alaska to claim his inheritance. Rather than the large chunk of change that many people would expect, Ted instead receives his mother's pack of rowdy sled dogs and her property. Although the dogs seemingly have it in for Ted, he decides to keep the dogs and race them in the local race, the Arctic Challenge, spiting a mountain man who wants the dogs. What follows is a comedy detailing Ted's adventures in learning to run the sled dogs.—Anna <dimenxia@yahoo.com>

Theodore "Ted" Brooks (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) is a dentist from Miami, Florida whose picture appears on every city bus in advertisements to promote his dental practice at the beginning of the film. When Brooks receives his letter from Alaska one day naming him as the only heir of a Lucy Watkins, his mother, Amelia (Nichelle Nichols), reveals that he is adopted. Brooks travels to the fictional village of Tolketna to claim his inheritance left by his biological mother: seven Siberian Huskies and a Border Collie and discovers his roots. Totally out of his element, Brooks has to face challenges he has never dreamed of: blizzards, thin ice, an intimidating, crusty old mountain man named Thunder Jack Johnson (James Coburn), 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 attempt to find the reason why he was given up for adoption, including any information about his biological father. He meets a bar owner named Barb (Joanna Bacalso), who was a close friend of his biological mother. Barbs helps Brooks to deal with the dogs and teaches him how to drive a sled and falls in love with him throughout the film. Brooks continues to encounter Thunder Jack, who wants all of his biological mother's sled dogs, especially Demon. 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 Brooks that he and Lucy stayed in a cave during one of the Arctic Challenges. It is there that Brooks was conceived. The next morning, when Thunder Jack woke up, Lucy was gone. He says that he was looking for Lucy, but never found her. Lucy gave Brooks up for adoption.

With Demon, Thunder Jack takes part in the Arctic Challenge Race, but is unable to finish it because of a huge snowstorm. Meanwhile, Brooks, who just returned to Miami, learns that his personal journey to Alaska is unfinished. Infuriated by evidence found proving that Thunder Jack was at the hospital when he was born, Brooks returns to Alaska to look for answers. When Brooks 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 Thunder Jack, with Nana as the lead dog.

He eventually finds Thunder Jack in the old cave, who confirms that he had been there when Brooks was born. Thunder Jack reveals that he and Brooks agreed then that neither one of them could raise a baby and confesses his love for Lucy. Brooks finds out the reason for Demon's bad temper is the pain caused by his bad tooth. He pulls it out and Demon becomes a friendly dog. During the journey back to Tolketna, the sled nearly goes over a cliff into a river, but the dogs managed to pull themselves back up. Brooks finally brings Thunder Jack across the finish line. After Brooks introduces Thunder Jack to his adopted mother, Brooks and Thunder Jack decide to share their trophy together.

Sometimes later, Brooks and Barb were married, and Nana and Demon have four puppies. Now having grown to love Tolketna, Brooks moves his practice to it with Barb, who is pregnant as his secretary. The film ends when Brooks' adoptive cousin, Rupert (Sisqó), becomes the new famous Miami dentist with his face on every city bus.