Out in the wilds, an aged man tells his grandchildren a tale of his own youth. After his mother dies, his usually-absent father, whom he barely knows, takes him into these same wilds to hunt for a grizzly. They find a mother bear with two cubs. The hunters capture the cubs, but the grizzly captures the lad. Somehow, boy and bear bond and trek across the forest with dad and an Indian friend on their trail. After a while, the boy figures out where he and his new mother are going: toward her cubs. Rifles, dogs, hunters, bear, cubs, father, and son are headed for a rendezvous.

A celebrity actress who gets her dream role playing real-life 19th century serial killer Belle Gunness in a feature film, starts to take on the characteristics of the character both on-screen and off.