An arctic oil-drilling expedition unearths some strange organic matter, cells which begin to spontaneously multiply. When the cooling unit in their storage facility fails, the cells grow into a violent and deadly life-form, a murderous ape-man. Kolchak finds the feature story he's planning on writing about the murders blocked by the authorities at every turn, and it seems that pressure from the large corporation which sponsored the drilling is threatening to squelch the truth about the murders.