The Trap

Jean La Bête paddles his canoe through wild waters toward the settlement to sell his furs. The journey underscores his dependence on the river and wilderness. The approach foreshadows the harsh frontier world he will navigate.

The seaport receives the Trader and his mute foster-child Eve as a steamboat arrives with mail and goods. The ship's captain auctions a jailbird woman, hoping to settle debts with a guaranteed marriage. La Bête bids to buy Eve but arrives too late.

Back at the settlement, the trader is heavily in debt and has spent what he owed La Bête. When La Bête comes to collect, the trader must dip into his own savings. Yellow Dog and No Name tell him that La Bête is dead.

To compensate for the loss of savings, the trader's wife offers Eve to La Bête for a thousand dollars, explaining Eve's muteness stems from the trauma of witnessing her parents' murder. This proposal frames Eve as both possession and survivor. The arrangement foreshadows the uneasy bond to come.

La Bête agrees to buy Eve and leads her into the wild. Eve resists, defending herself with a knife, while the hunter cautiously begins to introduce her to the wilderness and its dangers. The situation sets the stage for a complicated, coercive relationship.

While checking traps, La Bête is threatened by a cougar and shoots it, but his own bear trap injures his leg. He drags himself toward the hut as wolves close in. Eve, back at the cabin, hears the wolves and sets out into the wild to find him, and together they drive off the pack.

With winter coming, La Bête's lower leg remains broken and he asks Eve to fetch the medicine man from a distant Indian village two days away. Eve treks through snow across ridge and tundra, fighting fatigue and cold. She reaches the village only to find it deserted and returns empty-handed.

After he drinks rum to dull the pain and passes out, Eve amputates his poisoned leg to save his life. She nurses him back to health and gradually learns to hunt, earning his respect. He thanks her for saving his life and tells her that he could not live without her; they consummate their bond.

That morning, Eve appears to regret her decision and leaves the cabin with a rifle, pursued by a confused La Bête. She is thrown from the canoe during white-water rapids and is rescued by Native Americans who return her to the settlement. She remains an outsider, bedridden for two months and loses the child she carried.

Back at the settlement, Eve spends two months in bed and loses the child she carried. Her family arranges a marriage to a man who had previously shown interest, but Eve remains unhappy and detached from the expected life. The wilderness she left behind haunts her more than the settlement ever could.

On the day of the wedding, her foster-sister and foster mother dress her while the sister asks if Eve killed La Bête during her time in the wild. Eve runs away to return to Jean La Bête. She reaches the river beach, where La Bête welcomes her home by telling her to clean the house, and she watches him hobble into the forest singing before she chops wood and carries it into the cabin.