While at an archaeology dig in Afghanistan, evolutionary anthropologist Rachel St. Claire discovers a pendant with strange shifting symbols. Not long after, she receives an urgent call from her colleague, Dr. Grace McAllister, insisting Rachel come to Antarctica to examine an unusual body with ethereal properties found in an ice cave.

Before Rachel can respond, bandits storm the desert dig site. Just as they are about to seize Rachel, a helicopter appears with Trevor Brookenridge, a handsome polar geophysicist sent by his Aunt Grace to bring Rachel to Antarctica. Sparks fly, but Rachel already has a fiance. Rachel must decide who she can trust when a group of bioterrorists engaged in secret genetic experiments in an abandoned World War II Nazi base under the Antarctic ice sheet come after the pendant–and her.

For it seems everyone knows a secret Rachel does not, one which will change her life forever.