US research station, McMurdo, Antarctica: the oldest of the scientists the rescue team discovers is forty-five, and yet, physically, all are bowed, wizened, white-haired. Autopsies reveal that their bodies have aged like those of ninety-year-olds. A desperate world-wide, rivalry-riven search involving amongst others the British, Americans, Russians and the French begins for a cure to the unknown ageing disease, believed to be a prehistoric virus uncovered by the thawing of the polar and Greenland ice caps. An international crisis committee starts an equally desperate and politically influenced attempt to cover up the findings and keep hidden from the public a horror that could cause international panic.