Since the bizarre disappearance of his wife, mountaineer Abbot Boone's life has spiraled into a pit of alcoholism and alienation. But then a wealthy and desperate widow hires Boone for an impossible task: to recover her husband's dead body from the peaks of Mount Everest. With nothing to lose and debts mounting, Boone enlists a team of exiles and misfits to attempt the climb. But if Boone is to conquer the mountain, he will first have to survive the pressure cooker of Everest Base Camp, brutal subzero temperatures, and ultimately confront the mystery of his own grief