A boy grows up living in the woods with his mother and woodsman father. His childhood is largely happy, however, he wears a red cloak that he is forbidden from ever taking off for an extended period of time. He has had the cloak since he was a babe and whenever he sleeps, the cloak is spread over his bed coverings. His mother wears a similar cloak that she never takes off.

One stormy day, a strange traveller asks for lodging in their cabin. The weather keeps the traveller there for a couple days. When the weather finally eases up, the woodsman heads out into the woods and the boy, now a teen, is sent on an errand in town, leaving the mother and traveller alone together.

When the boy returns home after a fun day in town, he finds a large wolf standing over his father’s mutulated body and his mother’s torn clothes. The traveler is absent. When the wolf notices him and attacks him, he kills it in self-defense.

After the death of his parents, the boy carries the pain into his adulthood, becoming a hard, solemn man. He keeps his red cloak as a memento of his family, but it isn’t until someone steals it that he finds out the truth about his parents’ deaths.