In Spring 1847, after a winter stranded in the ice, Erebus and Terror remain stuck. Sir John Franklin sends out sledge parties to find open water leads through the ice. In the past, Sir John and Crozier had once been friends, but in England Sir John had denied Crozier permission to propose marriage to his niece due to his Irish background, and Franklin's refusal to see any other point of view than his own regrading the current situation causes their relationship to deteriorate further. The sledge party sent out to deliver a message to a cairn on King William Island accidentally shoots an Inuit man one evening mistaking him for a polar bear. As the men scramble to rescue the Inuit man, a massive, unseen creature kills their officer.
—Aaron Kyle