Summary

This story is set on the eastern edge of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. An old family feud over a strip of forest has reached fevered pitch between Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym. Ulrich's family had won the lawsuit many years ago that had settled the quarrel, and Georg's family had lost. The dispossessed family has never accepted the ruling of the courts and continues to poach on the land. The victorious landowners have continued to punish the interlopers.

Ulrich and Georg have kept the feud alive out of a personal distate toward each other that dates from their childhood years. On this particular winter night, each has brought his followers to the forest to hunt not "four-footed quarry," but each other. Ulrich senses the unrest in the woods and has come to deal with its source.

Ulrich has separated...