Tells the story of Scott's last expedition to the Antarctic from its departure in 1910 to its return in 1913. The author was, himself, a member of the expedition. The party was plagued by bad luck, weather conditions of unanticipated ferocity and the physical deterioration of the party on the last part of the journey. Confronted by the shattering knowledge that Roald Amundsen had reached the South Pole a month before them, Scott's party then had to negotiate the last part of the journey, a doomed attempt which entered into modern history.