This book is about a boy named Orion who meets a stranger under a ship that was wrecked. The stranger gives Orion a knapsack that holds a dispatch box with a map. To find out the meaning of the map, he brings it to a friend of his grandpa's named Professor Meriwether. Together they head out on an expedition to see where the map leads. This expedition takes them to the top of the world. They end up finding themselves in a colony and accused of murder! Orion is the only one who is not in prison. Can he help his friends escape and still survive?