In 1881 the US Army sent Lt. Adolphus Greely and 24 men to Ellesmere Island in the high Arctic to conduct scientific research for two years. When they became stranded there Greely and his men were forced to make their way south through 250 miles of some of the coldest, roughest water on Earth. James Shedd, Greely`s great great grandson, decides to make the same journey to see for himself what his ancestor went through and gets a lot more than he bargains for.