The goal has been achieved: Icelandia, an inhabitable, if inhospitable ice planet, has been reached. On the orders of Admiral Ragnvald Hakarsson, Oberleutnant Kirsten Konig is placed in charge of establishing first contact with the few non-human natives of Icelandia. But since her awakening from cryo-sleep, Konig has suffered incessant headaches, vertigo, and hallucinations that seem connected to the planet. But as settlement begins, the fragile peace Konig has won is threatened by the mysterious destruction of the second human colony. With no survivors or witnesses to the attack, the situation is about to become a flashpoint, which will burn away everything Konig believed she knew.