An American oil company called KIC Corporation is attempting to build an ice road in the Northern Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, located in Northern Alaska. They want the road in order to explore the area, in hopes of exploiting the oil resources of Alaska. A team of environmentalists works at a drilling base there. The drilling base is headed by Ed Pollack (Ron Perlman). After one team member is found dead and unclothed out in the snow, environmentalist James Hoffman (James LeGros) suggests a possible explanation for the death: a release of gas caused hallucinations and insanity in the group. After a second accident, he convinces Pollack to take the team to a hospital. A weird chain of events traps them in the base, and disorientation begins to claim the sanity of the other members.