 The small ski resort Angel Lakes is looking forward to the best winter season in years, and the mayor hopes the ambitious development plan of businessman Corben (who completely neglects his wife and teenage son Jason) will really put it on the map. It s built on a 200 years dormant volcano, but a couple of newly weds go missing, swallowed up by a small lava eruption which went unnoticed. Based on his seismographic readings and corpses of wild animals which he presumes poisoned by volcanic fumes, geologist Peter Slater, native of the town, predicts it is likely to erupt big time, but his female boss Dr. Osborne ignores him because he once cried wolf when nothing happened. His ex-lover Kelly, sister of sheriff Buck Adams, even arrests him for entering an abandoned observation cabin, but is convinced by a small eruption. Still the authorities refuse to evacuate as a second lava burst is likely to be far worse, so precious time is wasted; nature waits for nobody, neither a pregnant woman nor Peter and Kelly who went to get harder proof on the mountain...