"La Bête" (Oliver Reed) is a fur trapper, eking out a living in the wilderness of British Columbia. He travels to the trading post once a year to trade his pelts and hopefully buy himself a wife. Eligible women are something of a rare thing this far North so when he is offered the chance to swap his gold for the young mute, Rita Tushingham, he doesn't think twice and off they head back to his log cabin. She is a fiercely independent girl, and no push over for this larger-than-life bully, but the two must learn to co-exist of they are not to freeze/starve to death. Returning from a hunting expe...