'Poleon and his daughter Oachi live a quiet existence in the North Woods, as do their neighbors, André and Marie Beauvais. Doré, a villainous whiskey runner fleeing from the Northwest Mounted Police, is hospitably welcomed by 'Poleon; but when he forces his attentions on Oachi, her father drives him away. Terror-stricken by the loss of his rattlesnake idol, and thus deprived of communion with the evil spirits, he is welcomed at André and Marie's cabin but is likewise thrashed soundly and sent on his way. Doré returns when Marie is ill, in André's absence, and kidnaps her during a storm; she escapes and leaps over an embankment, there to be found unconscious by Oachi the next day. Doré, driven mad with fear, returns to their home wounded, and a vision of Marie brings his death.