A thirteen-year-old boy named Martin lives in a cabin in the woods with his younger sister Polly and their pregnant mother, who is bedridden from a lack of food after their father died. Anticipating a winter storm, Martin goes out into the woods to cut a log to keep their fire going for the night. As he’s dragging the log back, he suddenly sees a giant black wolf, but it’s gone before he can even move. He rushes the rest of the way back and heaves the log inside, only for his mother to ask him to go out and retrieve their axe before the snow buries it. Terrified but brave, Martin takes his father’s gun to get the axe and sees the wolf again, sitting on a stump. He runs back and shuts himself inside, but doesn’t mention the wolf to his mother or sister. That night, he wakes to move the log into the fire and sees that his mother might not be breathing. Martin shakes her awake and she tells them the baby is coming, and he has to get their neighbor Mrs. Ransome for help. Martin is terrified that the wolf will attack him in the dark, but he knows he must go or his mother might die. He begins to make the long, cold trek through the woods, but senses the wolf stalking him and runs in terror. Martin finally makes it to the Ransomes’ and collapses in exhaustion, and when he finally wakes the family gathers their things to return to his cabin. They take the sled back up and finally get to the cabin when Martin sees the wolf again, standing right by the door. The Ransomes’ Uncle Roger shoots at it, but it disappears. Polly opens the door, looking shell-shocked, and Mrs. Ransome goes inside to find that both the mother and baby are dead. The two children hold each other and listen as the adults make plans for their future, and Uncle Roger swears he shot the wolf.