Five men, struggling to return to base having faced the disappointment of having been beaten to the South Pole, meet their deaths only eleven miles from safety. The action of "Terra Nova" blends scenes of Captain Scott and his men at various stages of their Antarctic ordeal with dream-like flashbacks of the explorer and his young wife and fateful glimpses of his Norwegian rival, Roald Amundsen.

In its study of British pride and resolve, the play achieves a chillingly beautiful and magical intensity.