 Pierce plays a vulcanologist who arrives at a country side (fictitious) named Dante s Peak after his boss instructs him to investigate the possibility of a dormant volcano (the Dante s Peak) getting active again in that region. As story progresses, we see that Dalton (Brosnan) getting increasingly convinced that the volcano might blow up but his boss is reluctant to declare an emergency in the city yet (because of possibility that if the volcano finally does never erupt, the real estate prices will plummet anyway and the city might loose a huge financial investment deal). Unfortunately, the common residents of the area know nothing about it until very late. Finally, when Dante s peak does erupt, the city panics, some does not survive the catastrophe, including Dalton s boss and for Dalton and the mayor of the city (who falls in love with Dalton) and her children, it becomes a race against the pyroclastic cloud to save their own lives.