The Soviet Premier's airplane suddenly veers off course, far above the frozen Canadian wilderness--and shockingly close to a brand new, state-of -the-art NORAD radar installation. Is the Soviet action a simple error or a tactical slap in the face?

A squadron of crack F-15 interceptors and a squad of Canadian Arctic rangers race to the region where the plane has disappeared. Simultaneously, the new Baffin Island radar station goes active, showing NATO's hand, but poised to fend off a global crisis with the highest stakes. The U.S. Naval Arctic Weapons lab provides support with an untested surface scanning fathometer mounted in the hull of the U.S.S. Defiance, skippered by Captain Matt Colter and monitored by the device's inventor, Dr. Laurie Lansing.

The Soviets counter by rushing an awesome Akula class attack submarine in the hand of young Captain Sergei Markova to search for signs of the plane beneath the Canadian pack ice--that is, unless the NATO forces get there first. With all of the technological might of East and West homing in on the pressure point in the icebound Davis Straits, cracks appear in ice and men, and a showdown unfolds with terrible stakes--the fate of humanity itself.