A framed account recounts Alfred Erickson's hazardous Arctic odyssey, obtained by an editor through a resourceful young informant. The narrative traces sea and ice voyages, landings on mysterious shores and a rim of uncharted territory, encounters with bizarre fauna and perilous natural phenomena, and excursions into valleys, pools and a luminous settlement called Radiumopolis. Alongside episodes of discovery are romantic entanglements, violent death, alchemical schemes involving gold makers, narrow escapes and dramatic rescues. The book combines adventure, exotic landscape description and speculative invention into a linked sequence of episodic chapters.