In January 1942, in the midst of the U-boat war, the Royal Navy sends a small force on a secret mission to Antarctica. Three months later, a U-102 shells their camp; only two men and the gravely wounded captain of the squad are left alive. Their shelter gone, their supplies destroyed, cut off from contact with the outside world, they attempt to endure in the beautiful but hostile environment for the many months that must pass before rescuers can reach them.What was the secret that launched their mission? And why does the ultimate sole survivor claim both to have lost his memory and to long to return to his Antarctic purgatory?