- 1. West
- The boy from the Mountain Kingdom
- Polar apprentice
- An extraordinary plan
- Where Franklin died
- An education at Gjøahavn
- 2. South
- "I resolved upon a coup"
- The Napoleon of the Poles
- Dogs and skis
- A featureless expanse of snow
- 3. East
- A hero returns
- A new battlefield
- The frozen reaches of Tartary
- 4. North
- Grounded dreams
- The Arctic Phoenix
- The dirigible and the fascist
- A massed attack on the polar regions
- 5. Lost
- No more Poles to conquer
- Epilogue: the end of the Heroic Age.