Snowstorms lasting for days, rough ice piled up to form mountains, arctic temperatures, suddenly wide water channels that block the way and can only be crossed on drifting ice floes, hastily assembled igloos as protection against the forces of nature - whoever dared to make the journey to the North Pole had to prepare for this encounter. But at the turn of the century, there was no shortage of men whose goals were as adventurous as they were foolhardy and often showed signs of obsession: crossing a desert of snow and pack ice on foot, equipped with only a few sleds, accompanied by Eskimos and hundreds of dogs... . All this in order to reach a point where no mountain, no city, not even a crooked hut, and certainly not a cheering crowd is waiting for you, but a nothing, an abstraction that can only be determined with elaborate measurements.