Follows a group of 165 lumberjacks, French-Canadian and Atikamekw Indian, in the snowy forests of Haut-Saint-Maurice. The forests of Quebec supply timber via the Manouane River to the Trois-Rivières paper mill, one of the largest mills in the world at the time, which was responsible for most of the newspaper in North America. Many of the lumberjacks are the sons of poor, struggling farmers come to earn meager wages to support their families under extremely harsh conditions. They work from fall until spring, the temperature during winter sometimes falling to -50°C, and brave the dangers of saw blades, diseases related to overcrowding, exhaustion, loneliness, and a diet lacking in fruits and vegetables.