A principled but flawed reporter returns to New York and begins recovering from a devastating death on assignment. The next morning a dog arrives at her door, which she has inherited from her friend who was killed. Forced by her boss to take a break from her job, she retreats to a Maine cabin for some time off. Along the way, she and the dog witness the murder of a mother wolf. When they finally reach her cabin she realizes the dog's recovered two wolf pups from the woods and put them in the car's back seat.

The small town erupts in panic at the thought of wolves at the door. Not wanting to be involved she tries to back away but the responsibility of the dog and now the pups that she is beginning to care for forces her to be immediately drawn into small-town politics and corruption of local officials institute a brutal wolf-killing initiative, stoking interest in an unethical hunting resort that a prominent businessman is looking to open. She intends to expose him, then he sets a steel-jawed leg trap on her property for her dog, whose leg gets injured. She contacts her very close friend, Captain Morris, from the army battalion she was embedded with to research exotic big animal game farms that allow the killing of wild animals for large sums of money. Their romance is rekindled and he comes to visit.

The town is now a powdered keg and the pups have been discovered. She must get them back to their pack before they are killed and to honor her dead friend. She treks to a Native Canadian reservation but is chased by the owner of the resort who aims to stop her from exposing him and his resort for killing illegal big game. Not to mention providing evidence to the local Penobscot Native tribal chief that both her land and his are still owned by them because they were never paid by the US government for the land in the, 1830 Indian Removal Act.

After a massive chase and against insurmountable odds she gets the pups back to their pack and freedom. But not before we see her go over the side of a mountain after a brutal fight with the land owner who lies unconscious on a cliff. On the day of his court trial, she comes back to the cabin, and the dog files into her arms as her friend from the army looks on with love, respect, and joy.