[1] While undertaking a meteorological survey of the Arctic the crew of a Dakota aircraft observe a wrecked plane on the ice with one person moving around the area.

With the Dakota unable to land Rupert Royce volunteers to parachute down to the wreckage to offer assistance.

He succeeds but soon learns that the Dakota itself has crashed on returning to base with the loss of all the crew.

As he is about to leave British intelligence requests he undertake some espionage activities during his travels in Russia.

A reviewer in The Canberra Times was very impressed with the first 100 pages of the novel, but found problems after that: "In recounting this journey Aldridge is brilliant and convincing.