Married for twenty years to Edward Berry, Lyddie is used to the trials of being a whaler's wife in the Cape Cod village of Satucket, Massachusetts-running their house herself during her husband's long absences at sea, living with the daily uncertainty that Edward will simply not return. And when her worst fear is realized, she finds herself doubly cursed. She is overwhelmed by grief, and her property and rights are now legally in the hands of her...

Hoping to escape the horrors of his past, disgraced ex-army surgeon Patrick Sumner signs up as the ship's doctor on an ill-fated Arctic whaling expedition. Soon he's confronted by a new horror, the brutish killer Henry Drax. When Sumner and his crewmates are left stranded on the merciless Arctic wasteland, he discovers just how far he's prepared to go against the savagery of nature and man.