In 1959 the Antarctica Treaty was signed, sheltering it from the depredations of a developing world; a haven of international cooperation, conservation, and research. An agreement to which fifty-six nations have now added their signatures.

Biding their time… Staking their claims? For in 2048 this treaty will expire and this pristine wilderness of ice and snow will once more become vulnerable to the avarices of humankind as they seek to exploit it for its abundant resources, and for its military significance as an unblemished eye on the heavens and the satellites that wander there. And even now the pawns are being moved into place, as Dr Catherine Mills and her friend Geraldine Anders are about to discover when the bucket holiday of a lifetime becomes something else entirely.

A scientist – missing… A discovery – unknown… An adversary no one could have anticipated. The third book in the Dr Mills series takes Catherine and her best friend Gerra to Antarctica on what should have been the bucket list holiday of a lifetime.

Following an unexpected incident that sees them being transferred to the continent's mainland, they become embroiled in a mystery. What do Trident Energy, a British Prospecting firm, and Mecurion Enterprises, owned by the eccentric entrepreneur Lincoln Zabe with his aspirations to visit Mars, have to do with the disappearance of scientist from a research station deep near the South Pole, fragments of meteoric rock, and a deep ice drilling project to extract water from one of the continent's subglacial lakes?.