[2][3] In 19th-century Saint Petersburg, a young girl named Sasha watches as her beloved grandfather – a noted explorer named Oloukine – departs upon a voyage to reach the North Pole on board the Davaï, a specially designed icebreaker built to withstand the harsh arctic conditions and paid for by the Tsar of Russia.

Denied a position as the ambassador to Rome because of Tomsky's deception, Sasha's father blames his daughter for the family's fall from grace.

After negotiating passage with Larson, a man falsely claiming to be the captain, the Norge departs without her and she is forced to wait for its return while working as a dogsbody in a tavern.

Sasha uses the coordinates in the logbook to find the Davaï, and the crew use the dynamite they brought with them to blast the ship free and take it back out to sea.

Exploring the vessel, Sasha finds her grandfather's cabin, in which a picture of her as a child rests upon his desk, frozen in place.