1967. The time of the Cultural Revolution. Chen Zhen, a young student from Beijing, is sent to Inner Mongolia to teach a nomadic tribe of shepherds. But it is Chen who has much to learn – about existence in this enormous, harsh and breathtakingly beautiful wilderness, about community, freedom and responsibility, and about the most feared and revered creature of the steppes – the wolf. Seduced by the complex and near-mystical bond between these sacred creatures and the herdsmen, fascinated by their cunning, their strength, their ferocious beauty, he captures a cub and tries to tame it. But the growing relationship between man and animal – as well as the tribe's ancient way of life, and the land itself – is threatened when a ruthless central government officer decides to eliminate all wolves from the region, whatever the cost.
