: Canada, late 19th century. The domestic dog falls from the warm South into the conditions of the cruel North. The instincts of a predator are awakened in it, which helps to survive and protect themselves.

I. To primitive life

Dog Beck, born from St. Bernard and the Scottish Shepherd, did not read the newspapers and did not know that thousands of people rushed to the North in search of gold, and therefore now need large-breed dogs suitable for hard work. Back lived in the mansion of Judge Miller, warmed himself by the fireplace near the owner’s feet, went hunting with his sons, and played with the grandchildren of the judge. So the dog’s life went on until the gardener, a passionate lottery player with a small salary, sold the gullible Beck to a man at the train station.

People have never treated Beck so cruelly. First, a rope around the neck, then a cage. The dog changed hands, did not eat or drink for two days. When a man in a red sweater frees him, Beck unleashes his fury on him, but the man repels the dog’s attacks with a club. Back is defeated, he realizes it. The dog obeys the new owner, but does not fall for him, like other brought dogs.

Bacos is bought by Perrault and Métis Francois to transport government mail. They turned out to be fair and calm people, dogs were punished only for wrongdoing.

II. The law of the club and fang

"The first day on the beach in Daya seemed to Beck a terrible nightmare." The local dogs fought like real wolves. How leader Spitz tore the good-natured Newfoundland was a harsh lesson for Beck. “So what a life! There is no place for honesty and justice. Who fell, the end. So we need to hold on tight! ” From that moment on, Beck hated Spitz to be "cruel, deadly hatred."

Bek, along with other dogs harnessed to the sled. If the dog got off his feet, Dave or Spitz bit his teeth, and Francois sought the scourge. Back learns everything quickly. The work is hard, but the dog does not feel disgust for her. He notes how the gloomy dogs Dave and Sollex changed in the team, it seemed, "this work was the highest expression of their being."

Dogs work hard and get very tired. Back learns another lesson: you need to eat fast, otherwise other dogs will tear out rations, and he will remain hungry. Beck also learned to steal food and remain unpunished. He is running wild. It revives the past of his forgotten ancestors.

III. The primitive beast triumphed

Back does not hit Spitz first, but the opponent constantly provokes him to a fight. Once Spitz takes a hole dug by Back in the snow. “The beast spoke in him. He attacked Spitz with a rage unexpected for both of them. ” But the fight is interrupted by a hundred hungry dogs, smelling food and attacking the camp. Between the sled and the alien dogs, a fight breaks out.

Back becomes a cunning, power-hungry dog, striving for primacy. He wants to become a leader and undermines the authority of the Spitz in the team. Only Dave and Sollex remain calm and still work smoothly.

Somehow one dog misses a hare, and the whole pack rushes in pursuit. In Beck primitive instincts wake up, he runs ahead of everyone. The cunning Spitz runs counter to the hare and, first overtaking him, sticks his teeth into the back of the animal. "Back felt that a decisive moment had come, that this battle would not be for life, but for death." The advantage is clearly on the Spitz side: he manages to bite Beck and deftly bounce. All attacks of the bloodied Beck are unsuccessful. At the last moment, he changes his maneuver: having tricked an opponent, Beck gnaws at two Spitz paws. The enemy is defeated.

VI. Who won the championship

The next morning, François discovers that Spitz is not. After examining the wounds of Beck, he understands what happened: "Is it not true that two devils are sitting in this Beck?" Now the fights are over, Perrault and Francois think.The dog with his behavior seeks from Francois the place of leader. He quickly subjugates everyone else. Dogs make a record run.

Dogs are sold to a Scottish half-breed. Now they work day after day, pulling sledges with heavy luggage. Backing is not homesick. Instincts spoke imperiously in him. When Beck is resting by the fire, he sees not modern people. In front of him appears the image of a short-legged man with long arms. "His hair was long and tousled, the skull was slanted from the very eyes to the crown of the head ... He was almost naked - only on his back dangled skin torn and warped by fire."

V. The labors and hardships of the journey

Beck's harness master arrives at Skagway. "The dogs were exhausted and exhausted." Dogs are sold to the Americans Charles and Hal. With them was a woman - Mercedes, Charles' wife and Hal's sister, a capricious pampered beauty. These three are absolutely not adapted to the conditions of the North. They have excessive luggage on sleds for dogs, they do not know how to handle animals, in addition, they do not listen to the advice of experienced people. On the way, dog food quickly ends, seekers move slowly, often quarrel. Dogs die of exhaustion and hunger one after another. "So they got to John Thornton's parking lot at the mouth of the White River." Thornton explains that it is spring already, the ice is about to break, and travelers should not go any further - this is very dangerous. But they don’t listen to him. Hal whips the dogs to make them walk. Only Beck does not move and makes no attempt to get up, which infuriates Hal. The guy takes on the club. John stands up to defend Beck, a fight occurs between Thornton and Hal, and the guy backs off. Back stays with his defender.

Sledges descend on river ice. But soon a piece of ice settles under them, and people and dogs are hiding under water.

VI. For the love of man

Thornton is caring for a dog. For the first time, Beck “recognized love, true and passionate love. “He never loved anyone in Judge Miller’s house so much ... only John Thornton was destined to awaken in him ardent love, love, adoration, passionate to madness.” Thornton took care of the dogs, “like a father took care of the children — that was his nature.”

The returning companions of John, Hans and Pete, the dog condescendingly condescends because of his master, “as if out of mercy,” accepts their courtesies. Watching Beck’s loyalty, Pete once said to John: “Yeah, I don’t want to be in the place of someone who will try to touch you with him.”

Pete was right. Once in a bar, John tried to stop a quarrel, but one of the participants hit him. Back instantly attacked the offender, having managed to bite his neck. In the fall of that year, Back saved Thornton. John’s boat rolled over, "Thornton was carried away by the current to the most dangerous place of rapids, where every swimmer was threatened with death." But Back, tied up with rope by Pete and Hans, pulls out the owner.

In the winter at Dawson, the Back brings John one thousand six hundred dollars. The bet was that the dog would carry a thousand pounds and pass a hundred yards. And Back did it.

VII. Call is heard

Thornton and his comrades set off in search of gold east. After long wanderings, people find "a surface scattering in a wide valley ... Here they washed thousands of dollars of pure gold dust and nuggets for a day, and worked every day."

One night, Beck hears a call - a lingering howl. “He seemed familiar to Bak - yes, he had already heard it once!” In an open meadow, the dog sees a skinny wolf. The wolf ran away from Beck for a long time, but, realizing that the dog does not threaten him, he ceases to be afraid. They sniff in a friendly way.

“Back was in a wild rapture. Now he knew that he was running right next to his forest brother exactly where the imperious call came from, which he heard in a dream and in reality. ” Already in the afternoon the dog remembered Thornton and returned to the camp.

But the call continued to sound more persistently in his ears. At the river he gnaws a bear. He longed for a large prey, and soon he manages to repel the old leader of moose from the herd. Beck hunted down the moose for several days, until he became weak. The dog recalls John Thornton and rushes back to the camp."On the way, Beck sensed more and more strongly around something new, alarming." Near the camp he finds the dead dogs of John and the dead Hans and Pete. Near the hut Imetes dance. "Back lost his head, and this was the fault of his great love for John Thornton." The dog, like a living hurricane, flew into the Ihetes, "mad with the thirst for vengeance." He cuts the Indians' throats and rips them apart. Ihetes rush to flee from horror.

John Beck did not find the body, traces of his struggle led to the pond and broke off there. “John Thornton is dead. The last bonds were broken. People with their demands and rights no longer existed for Beck. ” He adjoins a wolf pack.