Australia owes its claim of 40% of Antarctic territory to Douglas Mawson, who led scientific expeditions to the Antarctic and was the first to identify uranium in Australia.

During an expedition to Antarctica in 1912, his two companions perished, leaving an ill and weak Mawson to struggle back alone to a base camp at Commonwealth Bay—the greatest story of lone survival in Polar exploration. A reconstruction of the tragic expedition is the pivot of the documentary, which also includes interviews with the explorer-scientist's daughters, contemporaries and students.