The year was 1987, JEFF WEST (EDWARD ALBERT), a daring adventurer, was sanctioned by the U.S. Government for covert and highly sensitive operations in the Soviet Union. Until the day a slip-up makes him an embarrassment to everyone. Glasnost was sweeping the country and the two super powers scrambled to clean house of their dirty deeds. The U.S. anxious to silence West, expose him to the K.G.B. After a harrowing chase he is captured and arrested on trumped up charges, abandoned by his U.S. cronies....best forgotten. After a fixed trial, West disappears without a trace into the bowels of Siberia. Crossing the great expanse of this desolate land, West's train crashes. For the sake of survival - to avoid the dreaded gulag for political dissidents - West assumes the identity of the dead petty thief he is manacled to. Thus begins a terrifying masquerade under his new name, IVAN POPOVSKY. His destiny diverted, West arrives at a minimum security forestry camp isolated by thousands of miles of foreboding terrain. An impostor, he observes and learns the ways of other prisoners, guards and natives. Tutored at every angle by the wise and mystical villager, FYODER (VICTOR WONG). West learns what it will take to escape and trains to run. And he runs. Always he runs, testing his condition and endurance, waiting for the chance to claim his freedom. The camp's highest ranking officer KOLYA (EUGENE LAZAREV), a fundamental relic from the most conservative, militaristic Communist ideology, stalks this runner, confronting him at every opportunity. Finally with the hope of settling with determined runner down, Koyla sends for LENA (OLGA KABO), the beautiful "wife" of the dead thief, Ivan Popvsky. From the very moment of Lena's arrival, West's life hangs in the balance as she has the power to expose him which will mean certain death. What ensues is the strangest of all relationships blossoming from deceit and anxiety into a deep love affair born out of mutual need and a longing for survival and freedom. Their love and West's fate are soon threatened as the world experiences the most staggering event - the collapse of Communism. First the rumor, then the word. From crackling radios and snowy TV sets, West soon finds out that all political prisoners are being freed. Had he kept his real identity he would be on his way home, but he has assumed the lie of a soviet criminal and must serve his time...seven more lost years in this wasteland. West's need for freedom digs deeper in his soul. His eye stretches toward escape. But how? To where? In all of Siberia there are only thousands of desolate miles. But when Kolya is reassigned to an outpost at the Bering Sea to serve the new Republic, he takes West with him as a final perverse challenge. His life's work over , the only thing he has left is a determination to break his final adversary - Jeffrey West. There are only thirty-two miles that separate Russia and America at the Bering Strait and so begins this brutal game. A determined runner might have a chance.but will Kolya allow him that chance? Wounded and desperate. West makes his final agonizing run, shielded by a herd of 3,000 reindeer , and triumphantly finds freedom in the arms of the woman he loves. Sometimes the only possibility is to do the impossible.