A 'ham' radio report, picked up in England by Ian Ferguson's father - paralytic, speechless and motionless in a wheelchair, who had died in his attempt to pass it on - is discounted by all except Ian who goes to Labrador to contact the authorities there. Briffe and Baird, members of a geological expedition in the cold wilderness of Labrador, have been given up for dead by the authorities on the word of Laroche, the pilot who had survived to bring the news. Ian believes, on the strength of the radio message, that they are alive and tries to revive interest in a search - he feels he must do this so that his father did not die for nothing. Laroche tries to prevent Ferguson's continued stubborn efforts to prove his father's claim. Paule, Briffe's daughter, engaged to Laroche, begins to believe in Ian and questions Laroche's strange evasions. Could it be possible that her father had survived? Did Laroche callously abandon the men? All three finally make their way to the Lake of the Lion for a revelation.