It's a fiercely hot summer, so hot that the north pole's heat record is broken by fifty degrees. Massive ice melt stuns the world as open ocean appears at the pole for the first time in living memory. Deep under the Atlantic Ocean, currents crucial to life react, dropping south -- and suddenly, storms of unprecedented ferocity start exploding over the arctic as cold air returns, slamming into the heat with cataclysmic results. The storms grow until they form a bizarre and gigantic blizzard unlike anything ever seen before. A stunned humanity realizes that a second ice age is about to engulf the earth.

Climatologist Jack Hall tried to warn people of the approaching peril -- but it may already be too late for any hope of survival. Now he must not only find a way to reverse the rampant ecological destruction that is transforming the world into a frigid wasteland, but also rescue his rebellious son, who is one of the millions trapped in the icy depths of a frozen New York City.