Smilla Jaspersen (Julia Ormond) is from Greenland but is living in Copenhagen. A little boy falls off of the roof of the building where she lives, and he dies. It is said to be an accidental death, but Smilla happens to be an authority on snow and ice, and she finds out from his footprints that he had been chased by someone right before he fell. She starts doing her own detective work and becomes friends and maybe more with one of her neighbors, who is a mechanic (Gabriel Byrne). Smilla then finds clues which implicate a corporation that is making clandestine trips to Greeland for unknown reasons, and they might be involved in the child’s demise.