Patrick Sumner is a disgraced ex-army surgeon from England who signs up to be the doctor on a whaling expedition to the Arctic in the 1850s. Onboard he meets Henry Drax, a brutish harpooner whose amorality matches the harshness of his world.

As the true purpose of the trip becomes clear, the two men butt heads, leading them on a journey far from shore and beyond the safe moorings of civilization.

Based on Ian McGuire's novel of the same name.