Volume II rejoins the expedition in January of 1855. Most of the crew is ill, and they have been reduced to tearing apart their trapped ship for firewood. Food has run low; forcing them to eat their starving dogs and Kane must prevent a mutiny that will surely doom their chances of survival. After enduring a second brutal winter, it becomes apparent that the ice will not release the Advance. Kane and his men set out with the ship's weathered and worn whaling boats in tow. Their destination is Greenland-thirteen hundred miles away across the frozen sea. The sick and weary crew must brave the dangers of thin ice, frigid waters and the approach of a third winter in their desperate attempt to return home.