A young Dutch geologist Alfred Issendorf is determined to win fame for making a great discovery. To this end he joins a small geological expedition to the far north of Norway where he hopes to be the first to identify craters made by meteorites in the landscape. It is a harsh and deserted environment which brings out all the faultlines amongst the group of young men and in Alfred's character. The tribulations increase: Alfred is unable to procure crucial aerial photographs, he falls on rocks, is soaked in a river, and is beset by mosquitoes and insomnia; the tent leaks appallingly. He is not a natural athlete, feels incapable, and knows he is superfluous to the group's needs. Alfred becomes desperate and paranoid, suspecting the others are leagued in conspiracy against him and is before long approaching the limits of physical and mental endurance.
Haunted by the ghost of his scientist father, unable to escape the looming influence of his mother, and anxious to complete the thesis that will make his name, Alfred's preoccupations multiply in this wilderness. As, piece by piece, his equipment is lost or ruined and his thinking becomes ever more disjointed, he moves towards the final act of vanity which will trigger a catastrophe.