Tara has been assigned to ZERO, one of fifty Structure Research Outposts throughout the world. The SROs study the "Structures" strange massive featureless objects that dot the world, discovered between the 1711 and 1892. They were originally a curiosity but after hundreds of years keeping their secrets they've been largely ignored.

Assignment to ZERO, the arctic station, is something of a punishment for the acerbic and insular Tara, who must spend six months with her chipper partner Rick, in the antiquated research base.

After her first week she finds the base to be in disrepair, and the work to be mind numbing, and Rick to be grating. Until his personality shifts, and she discovers he's been communicating with something inside the Structure.

After an argument over procedure, Rick "Ricky", becoming increasingly distressed destroys much of the bases' equipment and walks out in the arctic, freezing himself to death.

Tara is left alone, unable to contact anyone and with only the entity to talk to, with its true motivations a mystery. She finds herself opening up to it, admitting she needs companionship and falling under its influence. She too walks into the snow, only she approaches The Structure, and a passage slides open allowing her to enter.

Four months later a team arrives to find the station long abandoned.