Kelly Mitchell is a young woman pilot, in her mid-twenties, who runs her own air charter company. Sheriff Hank Wallace, whom Kelly has known since she was a child, hires her to fly him to the Poverty Island Research Station. Poverty Island is a small, rocky, forest-covered island located at the northern end of a landlocked freshwater lake, accessible only by air. There has been some sort of accident there and the men manning the station were able to make a single distress call before going off the air. Kelly and the sheriff find the station deserted and the men missing. It is up to Kelly and the sheriff to discover what happened to and then, hopefully, find the missing men.