Dr. Rick Donovan, an astrophysicist, leads a group of American scientists on a secret mission to Antarctica after a roving spy satellite spots a monolithic gray mass five miles long and one mile wide in a glacier's bowels.Upon their arrival, Donovan soon discovers this anomaly entrenched in the glacier is capable of creating enormous amounts of energy—power strong enough to form a vortex that picks up their three-ton vehicle in its maws. Shaken to the core, but determined to find out what's inside the glacier, he and his team board a nuclear submarine to burrow through the ice. Donovan discovers that a life form of superior intelligence inhabits the gray mass.To complicate their mission, a Russian nuclear submarine with the same goal in mind enters the area; unfortunately, the captain has an itchy trigger finger. In order to complete their objective, not only must they confront the Russians, but they must also figure out a way to make contact with the alien life form who's made it perfectly clear it wants to be left alone. Donovan and his team soon realize they'll have to pay a steep price both personally and professionally.