When a careless sheepherder leaves a dead animal carcass near his cabin, its scent attracts a grizzly bear named Toklat, who overcomes the sheepherder while he is drunk. The sheepherder's brother, an old man who has raised the bear since it was a cub, now faces the sad task of tracking and killing the bear through the rustic terrain of Utah's Uinta Mountains. As the old man tracks Toklat, he reminisces about the years since he first encountered the bear. When he finally finds the grizzly, the old man is forced to kill it.