The book starts with Sym, the main character, who obsessed by Titus Oates, a hero of Antarctica, and The Ice, talking about her love for Titus Oates. In her head Titus Oates is her constant companion and adviser. If it weren’t for Titus, Sym’s life would be as desolate as the Antarctic wilderness. McCaughrean says, I have been in love with Titus Oates for quite a while now – which is ridiculous, since he has been ninety years. But look at it this way. In ninety years I’ll be dead and then the age difference won’t matter. Besides, he isn’t dead inside my head.

The story is about Symone, a fourteen-year-old girl who is taken by her uncle on an unexpected trip to her favourite place in the world, Antarctica. She finds out that her uncle hasn’t made this trip for no reason, he is on a quest to find something, something people have died searching for previously. But he believes he has found it, with unknowing helping hand from NASA and a lot of help from a blonde, Viking-monster-slayer. But will they make it? Will they survive the Antarctica wilderness? What will happen to them on their long and tiring journey to the bottom of the earth? Read The White Darkness to find out.