 Rawden, a lumberjack in the North woods, fights with crooked dance hall owner  Ladyfingers  Hilgard over the affections of Babette DuFresne. Hilgard is killed. When Hilgard s mother and younger brother arrive in the remote logging town, Rawden attempts to ease their suffering by creating the fiction that Hilgard had been a well-loved man who died naturally. But when young Eric Hilgard learns the truth of his brother s death, he comes gunning for Rawden.