Atlas and his father summit Kings Peak together, and Atlas's mother dies while they are away from home.

Atlas and his father arrive at Rongbuk Monastery and meet their main guide, Chodak Sherpa.

A monk passes Chodak a warning that Atlas is looking in the wrong direction and will face a life-or-death choice.

A falling serac nearly crushes Atlas, and his father lunges to roll him out of the path of danger.

Atlas and his father arrive at Advanced Base Camp and discover Mr. Pierson and his daughter Maddie already there.

Mr. Blake accidentally steps on Chodak's hand with his crampon during the practice climb at North Col, injuring him.

The main expedition departs for the summit, leaving Atlas behind to manage radio communications.

An avalanche strikes the mountain and Atlas's repeated attempts to reach the team on the radio produce only static.

Atlas and Maddie persuade a reluctant Chodak to attempt a rescue climb up toward North Col.

Morse code SOS comes through on the radio, and Chodak commits fully to the rescue mission.

Maddie slips on the North Ridge and nearly drags Atlas and Chodak off the edge of the mountain with her.

Chodak concludes that his injuries make him a danger to the others and sends Atlas and Maddie ahead alone.

Atlas slips off a cliff into a gully, and Maddie uses a fishing rod as a pulley to haul him back up to safety.

Sonam leads Atlas and Maddie to the buried team's location, and all three dig together until the expedition members are freed.

Atlas wakes in a tent to learn that his father and the other expedition members survived the ordeal.

Atlas and his father arrive at the Rongbuk Monastery in 1939 to attempt Mount Everest, but their grief over Atlas's mother's death strains their relationship at every turn. After a dangerous encounter with a falling serac, the main expedition departs for the summit while Atlas, Maddie, and an injured Chodak remain behind at camp. When an avalanche strikes the mountain and radio contact goes silent, Atlas and Maddie persuade Chodak to begin a rescue climb despite the enormous risks. The trio fights through treacherous terrain until Chodak's injuries force him to turn back, leaving Atlas and Maddie to press on alone. Atlas nearly dies after falling into a gully, but Maddie saves him, and together they locate the buried team with the help of a Sherpa named Sonam. The story closes with Atlas waking in a tent to learn that his father and most of the expedition survived.

The headline events of the Everest rescue mission.

Mr. Thomley ignores Chodak's cautious advice and pushes the group straight through to Interim Base Camp without adequate acclimatization.

Mr. Levinsky threatens to expose what is written in Mr. Blake's journal after Blake dismisses the suffering of Jewish people.

A yak falls through the glacier ice and Atlas dives to pin his ice axe into the panicking animals' chain to stop the rest from bolting.

Mrs. Thomley's radio broadcast warns of imminent war and dangerous snowfall ahead, but the expedition ignores both messages and continues upward.

Maddie admits to Atlas that she has never attempted a climb anywhere near this difficult and confesses her fear of heights.

Ice falls on Atlas during the ascent to North Col and crystallizes over his goggles, leaving him nearly unable to see.

Atlas volunteers to cross the crevasse ladder first and then coaches a frightened Maddie safely to the other side.

Chodak slips while leading up a vertical wall and falls onto Atlas and Maddie, aggravating his hand injury and hurting his foot.

Chodak reveals that he has been carrying a letter from Atlas's father intended to be read only if the father did not return.

A whispered voice on the Camp Five radio says the word 'Help' followed by the word 'Blake.'

Atlas and Maddie suffer worsening headaches, dizziness, coughing, and hallucinations as their altitude sickness intensifies on the upper mountain.

Mr. Blake appears on his descent and tells Atlas and Maddie that the trapped team has no chance of being saved.

Atlas briefly hears his father's voice calling his name and mentioning a hole through the fading static of the Camp Six radio.

Atlas discovers that the symbol on Sonam's shovel is not a Nazi swastika but the Tibetan peace symbol known as the manji.

A woman whose son was wounded in the war gives Atlas the scarf from around her neck, and Atlas sees the gesture as a sign of peace from his mother.

Behind the main rescue mission lies a series of smaller but crucial events that reveal the tensions and dangers facing the expedition from the start. From the group's first clashes at Interim Base Camp to radio warnings about World War II that go completely unheeded, these moments quietly set the stage for the disaster to come. During the rescue climb, Atlas and Maddie battle ice blindness, a terrifying crevasse crossing, and the sudden collapse of their guide Chodak on a vertical wall. At higher camps, cryptic radio transmissions and the worsening grip of altitude sickness push the teenagers to their limits as they search for the missing team. A long-held suspicion about a sinister symbol is finally resolved near the summit, clearing Mr. Blake of the most serious accusations against him. The pool closes with a quiet moment of grace when a grieving woman's gift of a scarf gives Atlas a renewed sense of hope for the future.

The overlooked moments that shaped the mission.

Atlas's father defends Atlas against Mr. Blake's complaints but firmly refuses to allow Atlas to climb beyond Advanced Base Camp.

Atlas's father scolds Atlas for freezing during the serac crisis and calls it clear evidence that Atlas is not ready to summit.

Maddie discovers an unidentified boot print at North Col, raising suspicions that Nazis may be nearby on the mountain.

In a flashback, Atlas slips on a crevasse ladder during a climb in New Zealand and dangles above a chasm at least a hundred feet deep.

Atlas uses a makeshift pulley system to haul the expedition packs and then Chodak and Maddie up to the top of North Col.

Atlas wakes early intending to sneak away alone to find his father, only to discover that Maddie is already outside with the radio.

Atlas finds a shovel bearing a swastika symbol and discovers Mr. Blake's notebook pinned beneath it in the snow.

Atlas recalls overhearing his father reject Mr. Schäfer's request for access to Everest and begins to suspect Blake of working with the Nazis.

In a flashback, Atlas nearly walks off a hidden cliff in Austria after ranging too far ahead alone, and Mr. Pierson finds and rescues him.

Atlas and Maddie use the swastika shovel to test each step forward through thick snow and narrowly avoid walking off a hidden cliff edge.

Dangling above a gully and staring at near-certain death, Atlas finally admits to Maddie that he is scared and needs her help.

Atlas accuses Mr. Blake of helping the Nazis gain access to Everest, and Blake reacts with shock and offense before heading down the mountain.

Maddie challenges Atlas's belief that his father betrayed him, suggesting his parents hid the truth of his mother's illness to protect him from witnessing her death.

Atlas drops his rucksack and loses both his mother's scarf and the last oxygen tank, realizing in that moment that he has been frozen in grief since her death.

Atlas apologizes to Mr. Blake for his accusations, Blake accepts, and moments later Atlas hears his father speak for the first time since the rescue.

Atlas's emotional growth is driven by a series of pivotal decisions and revelations woven throughout the narrative. Early tensions surface when his father refuses to allow him to summit and then criticizes his dangerous habit of freezing in a crisis, while an unexplained boot print at North Col raises fears of a Nazi presence nearby. Mid-story, a flashback to a near-fatal crevasse crossing in New Zealand and later a close call near a hidden cliff on the North Ridge test his courage, while the discovery of a suspicious shovel and notebook deepens his distrust of Mr. Blake. His worst moment — dangling above an endless gully — finally cracks open his grief, and he admits to Maddie that he is scared and needs her help. After accusing Blake of Nazi collaboration and hearing Maddie's reframing of his father's choices, Atlas loses his mother's scarf and reaches a breakthrough understanding that he has been frozen in grief for years. The arc closes with Atlas apologizing to Mr. Blake and hearing his father's voice for the first time since the rescue.