A giant meteoroid approaches the Earth, spotted from an observatory by Professor Calculus, and he and a self-proclaimed prophet, Philippulus, predicts the meteoroid will hit Earth and cause the end of the world. The meteoroid misses Earth, but a fragment of it plunges into the Arctic Ocean. Calculus determined that the object is made of a new material arranges an expedition to find it with Tintin, Haddock and Detectives Thompson and Thomson.