Terrence Thirteen and his wife, Marie, are asked to come up and investigate sightings of ice giants in the north on behalf of the Muttson Oil Company when the firm’s owner is frozen in a chunk of ice.
The S.S. NIght Wind becomes trapped in the ice. Men on board the vessel swear they saw an enormous ice creature, moments before the collision. The Phantom Stranger appears, briefly, to confirm their danger. In Alaska, the owner of the ship, one Mister Muttson, is found, frozen to death, inside his sauna. The police call in famed Ghost Breaker, Doctor Terrence Thirteen, to aid in the investigation. Thirteen immediately rules out the supernatural. Again, the Phantom Stranger, briefly, appears. Thirteen rails against the Phantom Stranger's presence, denouncing him as a fraud. The sheriff moves in to arrest the Phantom Stranger.
The lights flicker, and in that moment of darkness, the Phantom Stranger disappears. The case reminds Thirteen of a previous experience. Thirteen had been brought in to explain the death of Ivan Gorsky, a wealthy recluse. Gorsky had been found, frozen solid, inside his hothouse. Gorsky's nephew, Mickey, had put forward the notion that Gorsky willed himself frozen, out of nostalgia for his life in Russia. Thirteen immediately dismissed the idea as absurd. Outside the hothouse, Thirteen discovered an empty canister of freon gas. Thirteen found that the flowers in the hothouse were also frozen solid. Thirteen surmised that the freon gas was piped into the hothouse, freezing everything.
Thirteen accused Mickey of murdering his uncle. Mickey attacked the officer, taking his gun. Mickey drew on Thirteen, but was quickly disarmed and beaten into submission. The crime laboratory determines that the ice, surrounding Muttson, could only have come from the Arctic. Thirteen charters a helicopter to take him out to the S.S. Night Wind. The Phantom Stranger again appears, warning Thirteen not to go. Thirteen lashes out at the Phantom Stranger, who disappears once more. Thirteen, and his wife, Maria, fly out to the S.S. Night Wind. Their attention is drawn to something gleaming in the snow. Landing the helicopter, Thirteen discovers an enormous sword, half-buried in the snow.
Suddenly, Thirteen is struck unconscious, by a massive frozen hand. Thirteen, and Maria, are seized by the ice giant. The Phantom Stranger confronts the ice giant. Tala suddenly appears. Tala embraces the Phantom Stranger, kissing him passionately, in an attempt to entice the Phantom Stranger into darkness. The Phantom Stranger spurns Tala, and battles against the ice giant, for the lives of Thirteen, and Maria. The Phantom Stranger is struck down. The ice giant is joined by his brethren, all of whom have been awakened by the passage of the S.S. Night Wind. Asleep for millennia, the ice giants have decided to reclaim the world.
The Phantom Stranger reveals the terrible state the world is in, full of strife and pollution. The ice giants balk at reclaiming such a world. Tala offers the ice giants Maria, to appease their law. Once the ice giants return to their lair, the Phantom Stranger has it sealed, with a dynamite explosion. Suddenly, Maria appears. For reasons of her own, Tala took Maria's place, then used her magics to escape the ice giants. Thirteen revives. En route back to civilization, Thirteen explains to Maria how the events she experienced were the result of shock-induced delirium.
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