A title card informs the viewer that Sir John Franklin's Arctic expedition of 1845 to find the Northwest Passage was never seen again. In the opening sequence set in 1850 ...

In Spring 1847, after a winter stranded in the ice, Erebus and Terror remain stuck. Sir John Franklin sends out sledge parties to find open water leads through the ice. I ...

The British bury the Inuit man in the sea through a fire hole in the ice, and his daughter, nicknamed Lady Silence due to her refusal to speak with them, sets out to retu ...

By November 1847, there is some concern regarding the fate of the expedition and Sir John's wife and his niece try to pressure the Admiralty in London to send out a searc ...

The weather outside the ships continue to worsen with severe storms and temperatures reaching minus fifty two. On board Erebus, Goodsir speaks with Lady Silence in an eff ...

In January 1848, the expedition's supplies are starting to run out. Now in charge of both Terror and Erebus, Fitzjames plans to abandon the ships and lead the men back to ...

A flashback sequence set in 1845 shows various men joining the Arctic expedition. One of them is a young man named Cornelius Hickey who has never been seen before in any ...

Captains Crozier and Fitzjames walk to the cairn visited by by Lieutenant Gore in the year before and update the message there. Afterwards Fitzjames opens up to Crozier a ...

In London, Charles Dickens is speaking at the London Cultural Society and introduces Sir John's wife Lady Jane who speaks with the audience regarding the missing expediti ...

An injured Crozier is brought to Hickey's camp where they speak briefly and Hickey requests Crozier's injuries be tended to by Goodsir. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Edward Littl ...