Mesklin is not a planet for the weak. The force of gravity at the equator is triple compared to the earth’s, and towards the poles it is completely unimaginable. Living organisms that can withstand impossible heat and cold. Weather comparable to a catastrophe. Charles Lackland, an explorer who arrived from Earth, using the services of the Mesklinite captain Barlennan and the crew of his ship, makes an unprecedented attempt at an expedition to the circumpolar lands in order to map them and find a lost probe storing invaluable scientific information...