When the power mysteriously fails, and almost everyone vanishes from a small tourist vessel in the Arctic, fear becomes the master for the three who remain. Forced ashore, the men deteriorate in body and mind until a dark truth emerges that compels them to ally or perish.

As a “free colored” woman, Anna Elizabeth Heegaard is wealthy and owns her own slaves when she begins a love affair with the Danish colony’s governor-general Peter von Scholten. During communal feasts, they discuss social reforms while a slave boy hangs above the table and cools the diners with a feather. And in the shadows, whispers begin of a slave revolt.