As the American newspaper reporter H.R. Makes his way across the Atlantic to rendezvous with a Russian icebreaker, the now stranded crew of the airship Italia prepare for an extended stay on the drifting icepack where they have crashed. Difficulties arise on both fronts as H.R. finds day-to-day life challenging aboard a foreign vessel, while on the ice, fissures begin to form among the marooned crewmen.