In 1596, a merchant ship captained by the famous navigator William Barents, set sail from Amsterdam to find an Arctic north-east passage to Cathay and the Spice Islands. After surviving encounters with the savage Samoyede natives and the constant danger from crushing ice and hungry polar bears, their ship becomes hopelessly entombed in ice off the north coast of the uninhabited and desolate island of Nova Zembla, well within the Arctic Circle and a thousand miles from the nearest civilisation. Ice Haven is based on the diary of one of the men, Gerrit de Veer and tells, for the first time, the story of their fight for survival in the Arctic winter against constant darkness, intense cold, and one white bear who is out for revenge.