Nicolette Scott, an archaeologist and old plane expert, is asked to join a search for a Japanese plane downed in Alaska during WWII. The mission is being funded by a pharmaceutical company in the interest of history. However, a much darker motive powers the search, one which Nick gradually becomes aware of. Knowing that the virus of the dreaded Spanish flu that killed millions around the world in 1918-9 will survive in corpses kept frozen, company executives hope to find the bodies of three First World War veterans who died of the flu while hunting for gold. Their plan is to callously unleash a similar epidemic and then ride in on a white horse with their antidote -- to enormous profit. Nick, horrified, determines to stop the plot even if she must lose her life in the process.