When the story opens the trapper is a boy of twenty. Living at the edge of the forest with his father, he has a strong desire to always be penetrating into the depths of the woods. This arouses the anger of the father, who rebukes his son so severely that he leaves the old man and takes up the life of a hermit in the forest. He supports himself by trapping. In time settlers begin to locate near where he has his lonesome abode, and he is occasionally brought into touch with the settlers. There is a tract of land near the cabin of the trapper upon which hunting and trapping are forbidden. The trapper has never violated the restriction. Not so, however, with the poacher, one of the settlers, who makes quite a profit by his illicit trapping. Singularly enough not one of the other settlers suspect the poacher, their suspicion resting upon the trapper, who does not mingle with them. The trapper finds a woman's shawl lying by the roadside. In order to learn to whom it belongs, he takes it to the village store, where he is informed that it is the property of "the girl" one of the settlers, who is now attending a dance in another part of the village. At the dance hall the trapper is rebuffed, sneered and jeered at on account of his rough appearance. "The girl" finally appears and lays claim to the shawl. Attempting to make her acquaintance, the trapper is attacked by the poacher. He fells him for his interference. At this juncture the trapper is set upon from all sides by the others, but proves to be so good a match for them that he is permitted to leave the place without further molestation. Determining to get rid of the trapper, the poacher and his friends plan to steal one of the latter's marked traps and to place it in a conspicuous position in the private stretch of land. The trapper has experienced a revulsion in feeling and comes to love "the girl," but being a woodsman of uncouth manner, he is not accustomed to wooing "the girl" in the usual social way, so in order to tell her of his love he takes one of his traps and conceals it on the road which "the girl" takes every day in going to her father with his lunch. Especial care was taken to arrange the device so that it would catch her gently by the ankles. Watching from his place of concealment nearby he sees "the girl" get caught. She faints and he quickly takes her to his cabin, where she is revived. His better nature, which has been lying dormant, relents to the pleadings of the girl and he sets her free. In leaving the cabin she perceives that the poacher is in the act of stealing one of the trapper's marked traps, and when the latter is called to account for the finding of his trap on the restricted ground, "the girl" clears the situation by telling what she had seen. The father of "the girl" contends that her story of how she had seen the poacher steal the trap is not the truth, so "the girl," in order to save her good name, marries the trapper. Feeling that he is not entitled to call a woman won under such conditions his wife, the trapper gives her the cabin and everything else and then starts for new hunting grounds, just as night is coming on. Realizing the good qualities of her husband, "the girl" follows his footsteps in the snow until she comes across his camp.