The story takes place in Hampton,New-York at the beginning.          

The first three chapters take place in a plane headed Northwest.  The biggest portion of the novel takes place somewhere in the North-western wilderness of Canada.  Brian brings the plane down in a lake, but he has flown off course so no one really knows where he is.  He is alive, injured and alone in the wilderness of Canada.  If it had been winter Brian probably would have died.  But it isn't winter and "the lake is lovely to look at and abounds with aquatic life. It is surrounded by dense green forest that covers hilly terrain; it teems with a variety of birds and animals. Paulsen's wilderness is a realistic one filled with both the beauty of a sunset tinting lake waters golden and the agony of relentless swarms of hungry mosquitoes."