Summer 1930, Svalbard: a walrus-hunting boat sets sail for White Island, one of the last lands before the North Pole. The melting of the ice has revealed terrain that is usually inaccessible. As they move across the island, the men discover bodies and the remains of a makeshift camp. It is the solution to a mystery that has hung in the air for 33 years: the disappearance in July 1897 of Salomon August Andrée, Knut Frænkel and Nils Strindberg as they tried to reach the North Pole in hot air balloons.

Among the remains some rolls of negatives are found and some one hundred images are retrieved. Based on these lunar-like black and white photographs and the expedition logbook, Héle ne Gaudy retraces and re-imagines this great adventure that was blown off course. From the conquest of the skies to the exploration of the poles, this novel reflects on the human need to circumscribe, discover, describe, conquer and ultimately shrink the world.