In October 2005, two mountaineers climbing above Mendel Glacier in the High Sierra find the mummified remains of a man in a WW II uniform, entombed in the ice. The "Frozen Airman" discovery creates a media storm which draws author Peter Stekel to investigate and stumble upon the case of a navigation training flight crew missing since 1942. Early attempts at recovery are thwarted due to empty graves, botched records, bad weather, bad luck, and bad timing. Then, in 2007, Stekel himself discovers a second body in the glacier.