The book recounts where Finland's Arctic visions stem from and what Finland has pursued as an Arctic country. The first part of the book, written in the late 1990s, is a unique eyewitness account of the beginnings of international Arctic cooperation. The second part brings Finland's Arctic story to the present, to the moment when Finland is leading the Arctic Council.

The author Markku Heikkilä, Head of Science Communications at the Arctic Centre, is a former journalist who has closely followed the ups and downs of international Arctic and Northern cooperation for several decades and has written extensively on the subject. In this book, he summarizes Finland's long time Arctic policy vividly and analytically.