Riley Kowalski is desperate to escape her life. So when she sees an advertisement seeking student volunteers for a research trip to Antarctica sponsored by eccentric tech billionaire Anton Rusk, she jumps at the opportunity. She joins five teens, a company-approved chaperone, and an impartial scientist to prove that environmental plastic pollution has reached all the way to Antarctica.

It all sounds legit, but Riley soon has more questions than answers. Why is the station so big, and why is half of it closed off? Why are they testing the ice in an area already known to be polluted? Where does their chaperone keep disappearing to? Riley dismisses her suspicions as a symptom of her anxiety – even when she starts to see things out on the ice. Even when she has a terrifying encounter with Greta, their scientist. It’s not like a person’s body can actually change like that. Riley has to be seeing things. Right? And then Greta tries to kill her. Only…it isn’t Greta anymore.

With no help, no way to call home, and a blizzard rolling in, Riley and the other teens have to work together if they want to survive. But how do you trust anyone when the thing you’re trying to escape could be one of them?