On one level, Julie of the Wolves is a book about survival in the wilderness. A young Eskimo girl, named both Julie Edward (her American name) and Miyax Kapugen (her Eskimo name), runs away from a traditional planned marriage that she finds intolerable. She becomes lost on the vast North Slope of the Alaskan Brooks Range, far away from even the most remote settlement. The long arctic winter is coming on and Julie must call on all her wits, her Eskimo skills, and her sensitivity to nature to find the food and shelter she needs to survive. Near her camp, she discovers a wolf den and determines that somehow she must find a way to make the wolves share their resources with her if she is to live.