A plane crashes near the Arctic Circle and it is discovered by three men that are working as investigators in the Polar ice cap. It is a strange accident because the Arctic Circle is not a usual route for planes.
An atmosphere of suspicion grows around the accident, just as we can observe in lots of details. The three men decide to rescue the survivors, but the first night together, the only way to ask for help (a radio) is broken by someone, and an injured man is murdered. One of the investigators, Peter Mason, the one that tells the story, tries to find out what’s happening, and soon, he discovers that the pilot and other people in the plane have also been murdered.
It seems that this plane and the people inside are not in the Arctic Circle by accident, but at first, all the evidence is driving the investigators into the wrong direction. Mason and Jackstraw, another investigator, decide to leave by tractor with all the survivors in order to meet some more investigators of the zone. They also hope the radio of the tractor will start working as they get near the main investigation centre. And it does. On the second day of their journey, they receive a call telling them one important thing: in the plane there was an important device/mechanism. Someone could have caused a plane accident to steal it. But who?
After leaving the cabin (the place where the investigators lived), such a complicated journey starts under frozen temperatures, with ill survivors and no food, and a climate of deep distrust. The situation is getting worse and worse, when two of the survivors, Corazzini and Smallwood, abandoned the others in the middle of the ice cap. Now the abandoned survivors know who the murderers are but they will probably