Henry Carter Hull

While awaiting a visit from the Emperor, a group of penguins fail to recognize their friend Tacky in the Emperor's clothes.

In the Antarctic, every March since the beginning of time, the quest begins to find the perfect mate and start a family. This courtship will begin with a long journey - a journey that will take them hundreds of miles across the continent by foot, one by one in a single file. They will endure freezing temperatures, in brittle, icy winds and through deep, treacherous waters. They will risk starvation and attack by dangerous predators, under the harshest...

Describes the parental behavior of Emperor penguins, focusing on how the male keeps the egg warm until it hatches and how the parents care for the chick after it is born.

Peter Mathiessen chronicles two voyages to the polar ice cap, discussing how the ice cap holds almost ninety percent of the world's fresh water and describing the wildlife and fish which live off the ice cap.