Who would have thought that the glamour of working the slopes as a ski instructor would turn out to be just another snow job?

After finishing college, joining the labor force, and unceremoniously getting canned, Betty Winters does what any self-respecting postgrad with an expensive liberal arts education would do: she defies her wealthy Connecticut parents and goes west to ski-bum around the Tetons. But after a year of the rambler’s life, Betty feels her enthusiasm beginning to wane.

There’s nothing she loves more than the Jackson Hole vistas, the soft murmur of fresh powder, and the sheer pleasure of conquering a killer bump run. Plus she’s pretty partial to her hunky boyfriend, Jack. What she’s coming to hate, though, is the wake-and-bake ritual of their pot-filled mornings, the measly wages from her double shifts instructing on the slopes and moonlighting as a cocktail waitress at the Mangy Moose, and the feeling that for Jack, ski-bumming isn’t just a phase. And then there’s Jack’s wife, Muriel. . . .

When tryouts are announced for a famous extreme-ski video series, Betty decides to enter: perhaps getting paid to ski the world is her calling. But all the training in the world can’t prepare her for what follows. . . .