William Day should be an acclaimed Arctic explorer. But after a
failed expedition to find the fabled Open Polar Sea, in which his
men only survived by eating their comrades, he returned in
disgrace. A cannibal. A murderer.
Thirteen years later, his second-in-command, Jesse Stevens, has
gone missing in the same waters. Perhaps this is Day's chance to
restore his tarnished reputation by bringing Stevens - the man
who's haunted his whole life - back home. But when the rescue
mission into the frozen wastes becomes an uncanny journey into
his own past, Day must face up to the things he's done.
Aboard ship, Day must also contend with unwanted passengers: a
reporter obsessively digging up the truth about the first expedition,
and Stevens's wife, a spiritualist whose séances both fascinate and
frighten. Following a trail of cryptic messages, gaunt bodies, and old
bones, their search becomes more and more unnerving, as it
becomes clear that - for Day - the restless dead are never far
behind.