When Hugh Gaylord reluctantly accepts the challenge to leave his soft, comfortable life to hunt the cougar Broken Fang in the Idaho Rockies, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Initially skeptical, he soon finds purpose and meaning in the trials and travails of life in the harsh wildnerness as his story intertwines with those of the animals around him—Broken Fang, Spread Horn the bull elk, Spot the bighorn goat, and Shep the dog—each of them contending with the challenges of their environment.

Like many of Edison Marshall’s novels, this one draws on his own experience as a life-long outdoorsman and big game hunter.