In 1997 a journal is found in an all weather shelter in Antarctica. Travelling back to England the finder reads an extraordinary story of depravation, war, survival and the thirst for revenge. It is the autobiography of Derek Jacobs, who as a child was an inmate of the Nazi concentration camps where he saw his mother horrifically abused, particularly by one man. Unlike his mother, he survives the camps and the death march to be brought up in Canada. There, as a young man forging a career in the environment movement, he comes across the same man. The meeting unblocks the suppressed memories of his childhood and Derek savours the heady flavour of revenge. He is co-opted by 'The Secret Hunters' and with dogged patience they track their prey through a web of intermediaries, discovering that he and his cohorts believe they can re-establish the fascist state. On a secret mission to mine valuable minerals in the Antarctic Derek confronts him. The result is deadly - but for which man?