Sometimes, you've just got to take the plunge … When marine biologist, Jenny Payne, agrees to spend Christmas working on the Cape Adare cruise ship to escape a disastrous love affair, she envisions a few weeks of sunny climes and cocktails. What she gets is an Antarctic expedition and extreme weather. And then there's her fellow passengers; Vera, the elderly crime writer, Lian, a young runaway, and Kit Walker; the mysterious man renting the most luxurious cabin on the ship, but who nobody ever sees.