- A five-person team of gold prospectors in the Yukon has just begun to enjoy great success when one of the members snaps, and suddenly kills two of the others. The two survivors, a husband and wife, subdue the killer but are then faced with an agonizing dilemma. With no chance of turning him over to the authorities for many weeks, they must decide whether to exact justice themselves or to risk trying to keep him restrained until they can return to civilization.—Snow Leopard
- WARNING - CONTAINS SPOILERS
Five prospectors (and their dog) along the Yukon river, are just about to pack up and move their sluicing operations to another site, when shareholder Michael Dennin, a seemingly happy-go-lucky Irishman. discovers a gold nugget. He reveals his find to the other members of the company: their chairman Hans Nelson - a Swede, his wife Edith - an Englishwoman, and two other shareholders called, Dutchy and Harky, who origins are not revealed.
Next we see them all in a small cabin, in late winter. The prospecting is going well, but Micheal is not having the greatest luck and he resents, what he feels, is being burdened with more than his fair share of domestic duties. There is a degree of boredom, and irritation at being all stuck in one cabin and being so isolated from the outside world. One day, when Michael hasn't returned to the cabin for lunch, a jovial Harky states "Michael won't be joining us....He lost his appetite due to envy". Shortly afterwards Michael comes in through the door, in a obviously vile mood. Harky laughingly lifts a tin cup and toasts "To your health, Mr Dennin.
Michael shoots Harky and then Dutchy, with a rifle he's holding. Edith jumps on him to stop him, while he's trying to reload. She's able to disarm him, but he begins to choke her. Hans pulls Michael off of Edith and beats him ferociously. Edith has to physically struggle with Hans, in his rage, to stop him from killing Michael. Dutchy is dead but they discover Harky still is still alive. The lay him on a counter. Hans grabs a rifle wanting to shoot Michael. Once again Edith has to fight him to stop him, insisting they can't kill him this way, stating "Not without the law! - it's a white man!" A hard freeze has settled in while all this is happening.
Michael is tied up, being watched by Edith while Hans tries to dig graves, struggling for hours in the ice-hard ground. Meanwhile - back at the cabin - Michael taunts Edith saying he'll "...kill them all someday, anyway." Edith discovers Harky has succumbed to his wounds. She reads her Bible, trying unsuccessfully, to comfort herself. No sooner does Hans finish digging the graves, when it begins to rain heavily. Hans fears the graves will flood if the bodies aren't buried soon, so they go out into, what is now violent wind and rain storm, struggling to complete the grim task. In their absence Micheal tries to escape. Unable to loose or cut his rope bonds, he crawls out of the cabin looking for sharper implements. He only manages to make it down the cabin stairs when Edith and Hans return, they discover Michael and take him back in.
Water has now covered the icy land and they are completely unable to leave. Days go by with one of them always sitting close by with the rifle, but Michael constantly taunts them, and looking to escape, if his exhausted guards fall asleep. Tension mounts, leading Edith into deep anxiety and weeping, and Hans becoming more angry with Edith, blaming her for their plight. Ice dams on the Yukon river begin to break apart, sending torrents of water and ice across the plain and flooding the cabin. At one point Michael kicks a candle off the window sill setting his bed on fire, but Hans quickly extinguishes the flames, and everyone's anxiety worsens. Soon the waters recede somewhat, a bird begins to sing in a nearby tree, and Hans go out to assess their ability to leave. We learn it is Edith's birthday and Michael tells Edith he wants to give her something, and asks her to pull it out of his pants pocket. Edith is wary but Michael assures her he only wants to give her a gift. It is a beautiful and obviously expensive watch. Though Edith is unsure, Michael insists she keep it and she tucks it in her blouse. When Hans returns Edith wants Michael to be able to sit at the table and eat, so they tie him to a post, with his hands free. She puts a sad looking cake on the table, and they all put candles on it. Once the candles are lit, Edith asks Micheal why he tried to kill them all. Michael explains "It seemed so terribly simple". We see a tender scene of Micheal presenting his elderly and destitute mother with bags of gold. He jokingly chides her, saying "And you always said I'd end up on the gallows.", then she joyfully embraces him. The touching fantasy fades from the screen. The three sit solemn and silent at the table, as the candles melt down, ruining the cake.
Days to go on with them still unable to get through the flooded plain, but there are emerging dry spaces around the cabin. When Hans can no longer endure their plight, Edith says Hans and she must put Michael on trial, as they have no idea when they will be able to take him to face justice. As Michael is Irish and Edith English, Hans hangs a picture of a young and beautiful queen Victoria on the cabin wall and declares they will try him under queen Victoria's law. Edith insists that it must wait until the next day, because it would be wrong to condemn a man on the Sabbath. They first sit as judges, then give testimony as witnesses, while the other writes it all down, and finally as a jury they decide Michael must die for his crime. Michael offers no resistance through the trial, at the pronouncement of hanging, or when they take him to a tree to be hanged. He mounts a tall box, by himself, for Edith to put the noose around his neck. Edith stands next to him and prays that "God will accept a repentant sinner." Edith climbs down, she and Hans push the box out from under Michael, watch his body swinging, and then both collapse under the emotional weight of it all. Hans has to half carry - half drag Edith back to the cabin.
Later we see Edith and Hans at night, in the cabin, while it pours rain outside. They are both still very distraught over what they have done, and sit silently being overtaken by dread and terror. Slowly the cabin door begins to swing open, letting in the roaring rain. Edith and Hans stare at the door in horror, as a drenched and dripping Michael slowly steps in, with a wild look on his face, a broken noose still hanging around his neck. He menacingly approaches, gathers up all the gold in the cabin, and slowly backs out, taking the noose from around his neck, tossing it towards them. "For luck" he sneers as he leaves. Michael trudges out into the storm and dark - the screen fades to black. - The End
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