After losing her grandfather, Alma returns to her childhood home in the Canadian wilderness. In the forest, she comes across the wreckage of a plane that had been destined for a circus...with a lion cub poached from its mother in Africa. At the same time, a female wolf who had somewhat befriended Alma's grandfather—perhaps because his cabin was built over the site of the old wolf den where she, herself, was born and raised—comes to find refuge in Alma's house, with her pup, when she is pursued by two scientists. The lion cub and the wolf pup live like brothers; they play together and both are kept well-fed thanks to the she-wolf.