John & Sophina McClaren's attempts to make a living on the family farm in the 1890's Northern California Woodlands, are complicated by the presence of a ferocious cougar. Two years earlier, en route to their settlement, this same cougar attacked their young daughter Amy, and frightened her into elective mutism, for which older brother Josh has sworn vengeance, with the help of little brother Leroy, Grandpa Jubal, and eventually John.