Ivan Kerikov, ex-leader of the KGB's secret science division, has joined forces with a renegade Arab oil minister to derail the U.S.'s plan to stop buying imported oil through the development of alternative fuels and the use of Alaska's oil. Kerikov's plans include crashing a fully loaded supertanker in the middle of San Francisco Bay and bombing the Alaska pipeline at key points.

The minister's planned coup will make him dictator in his own country and head of OPEC - and will line Kerikov's pockets with several million dollars.

But Kerikov hasn't accounted for Philip Mercer, on the surface a mild-mannered geologist. When the discovery of a fire-blackened charter fishing boat leads to the murder of three of his drinking buddies, Mercer gets involved. And when Mercer gets involved, trouble follows - for everyone. Mercer knows all the right people in all the right places - or is it all the wrong people in all the wrong places?

Mercer's got extra trouble in the form of Aggie Johnston, the beautiful daughter of a petrochemical magnate. Eager to destroy her father, Aggie joins the eco-terrorists - until she discovers the ecological damage they are willing to do to promote their cause. Kidnapped by Kerikov and imprisoned in an offshore oil-drilling platform, Mercer and Aggie escape into the freezing ocean via a hair-raising thrill ride more exciting than any roller coaster.