A view at ground level of how new airfields, built by the Canadian Armed Forces, are helping to make the Canadian Arctic, an area nearly half the size of Canada, the crossroads of the North and flyway of the northern hemisphere. The film shows construction crews at work, coping with all the many varied problems that the northern terrain presents - permafrost, muskeg, climatic conditions, limited season. It shows, too, what the introduction of air transport routes will mean to northern communities.