Returning to Dundee after years in the army, Robert Douglas finds employment with George Gilbridge, a whaling-ship owner and business man, but falls foul of the sinister John Wyllie Douglas awakes on board the steam-whaler Redgauntlet, bound for the Arctic, to realise that many of his companions believe the ship is haunted and do not expect to return The voyage sees the unravelling of a year-old mystery as Douglas clashes with, then befriends 'bully' Houston, the ship's mate, and together they locate a sister ship that was believed lost in the ice