Henry Drax knows no conscience. He is a harpooner on the Volunteer, a whaling ship heading from England to the Arctic waters of Baffin Bay. Also on board is Patrick Sumner, a doctor of questionable reputation who believes he has seen it all—unaware that his greatest trial is yet to come after he exposes Drax for a monstrous act. As the conflict between the two men intensifies, the true purpose of the fateful expedition becomes increasingly clear. The haunting beauty and solitude of the Arctic Ocean provide the backdrop for Ian McGuire's dramatic novel about good and evil, a timeless story in its philosophical and psychological dimensions about the deepest abysses of the human heart.