The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic by Gay Salisbury, Laney Salisbury (edit title/settings)

It is the onset of winter in the Alaskan goldrush town of Nome. The last ship Alamaeda, which brings supplies for the continent is ready to depart the port town. Dr.Welch the doctor in Nome, has ordered some medical supplies from health commisioner in Junneau that have been brought by the ship. While going through the brought supplies; Dr. Welch finds out that the serum to fight Diphtheria, that he had ordered had not come through. It seems that his application had been ignored. The batch of serum that he had, was six years old & few.

As the last ship leaves the port a family an Eskimo family from Holy cross arrives in Nome. The youngest child of the family is sick & dies. The case seems to that of diptheria, but the physician cannot confirm. After the incident many children start falling sick,apparantly all of them showing the somewhat similar symptoms. Thus Dr.Welch's worst fears of Diptheria epidemic in Nome appears to be turning true.

The Health Board of Nome put all the citizens under lock down & the infected families are quarantined. Messages & cables of help are dispatched to Washington. The cable requests the about 1.1million units of serum to be located and dispatched to Nome.
When the serum is located, the main problem is that of transportation of the serum to Nome. From the icefree ports, & the mail train; the serum can be transported by only the dog sleighteams & their drivers.

This is the story of the race of these dogsleigh teams & their drivers; who braved the cruel Alaskan winter storms,blizzards & the freezing tempratures, against the iptheria Epidemic.