Sam McGrath has always rejected his father's love of mountaineering. Now, at a low point in his life, he sees the chance of escape. Fiercely attracted to a young Canadian doctor he meets in a stormbound airport, he decides on impulse to follow her as she goes to be expedition doctor for an attempt on Everest.
Finch Buchanan does not respond. An independent woman with a determination to prove herself, she is in love with Al Hood, the Welsh mountaineer who will lead the expedition. They met once, five years previously, and Finch has never forgotten him. But Al is married - to the mountains as much as to another woman.
As the group of climbers set out to conquer the highest peak, their beautiful and threatening surroundings isolate them and the physical and emotional demands test each character to the utmost. At the heart of the story, enclosed by the iron ring of peaks, is the combative, passionate and tragic relationship between Finch and the two men. Two men driven by different demons, and a woman with her own history . . .
