The Wendigo recap

A small hunting party enters the remote Canadian forest. Young Simpson travels with the guide Joseph Défago to a distant camp while Dr. Cathcart and Hank Davis remain elsewhere. At night Défago becomes terrified by a strange odor, distant calls, and signs that he associates with the Wendigo. He vanishes from the tent, leaving tracks that change into enormous impressions, and Simpson hears him crying from impossibly far overhead about his burning feet. Simpson returns to the others, who mount a search. Défago reappears grotesquely altered and almost emptied of personality, accompanied by the same uncanny presence. The skeptical Cathcart cannot give a sufficient natural explanation, while the camp cook Punk recognizes the danger and flees. Though the men bring Défago back from the wilderness, he never recovers his mind and soon dies. Simpson is left with knowledge of something beyond the party's ordinary understanding.

Dr. Cathcart leads a moose-hunting trip into the Canadian wilderness with his nephew Simpson, the experienced hunter Hank Davis, the French Canadian guide Joseph Défago, and the camp cook Punk. Game is scarce around their first position, so the party divides to cover more territory. Cathcart and Hank form one pair, while Simpson goes with Défago to a more isolated camp. The visitors regard the forest as a sporting challenge, but its immense scale and silence unsettle Simpson. Défago, despite his skill and familiarity with the land, shows a guarded fear connected to remote places and to beliefs the others treat as superstition.

At the isolated camp, Simpson senses that Défago is listening for something beyond the normal sounds of the woods. An unfamiliar odor passes through the area, and distant cries seem to call the guide by name. Défago's composure breaks during the night. He speaks fearfully of the Wendigo, a legendary presence associated with the boundless northern wilderness, then disappears from the tent. Simpson follows his trail and finds that the human footprints are joined or replaced by enormous marks. He hears Défago's voice moving at an impossible height and distance, crying out about feet that burn. Alone and overwhelmed, Simpson eventually forces himself to leave the abandoned camp and seek his uncle.

Simpson reaches Dr. Cathcart and Hank in a state of exhaustion and tells them what happened. Cathcart searches for a rational account based on panic, suggestion, or exposure, but Simpson's detailed conviction and the experienced guide's unexplained absence demand a search. The men return toward the isolated camp with Punk. The wilderness seems to resist their ordinary methods of tracking, and signs around the site reinforce Simpson's memory rather than settling it. The strange odor returns. They then encounter a figure resembling Défago, yet his movements, voice, and damaged feet make the reunion more disturbing than reassuring.

The searchers recover Défago, but he is profoundly changed. His body bears the effects of an ordeal no one can reconstruct, and his speech and behavior retain little of the skilled guide they knew. The uncanny smell and sense of a vast presence accompany him, defeating Cathcart's attempt to reduce the episode to nerves or wilderness exposure. Punk recognizes what the others have encountered and flees the camp. The party abandons the hunt and returns to civilization with Défago. Physical rescue does not restore him: his memory, reason, and personality remain shattered, and he dies not long afterward. Simpson survives with an experience that neither skepticism nor folklore can fully contain, while the forest remains beyond the hunters' control or understanding.

Simpson returns with Dr. Cathcart, Hank, and Punk to search for Défago. The guide finally comes back, but the person who appears is physically and mentally altered, with damaged feet and scarcely any recognizable identity. The same strange odor and overwhelming presence accompany his return, making a purely ordinary explanation inadequate even for the skeptical doctor. Punk flees rather than remain near it. The party gets Défago back to civilization, but his former competence and personality do not return; he soon dies in a state of mental ruin. Simpson survives as the clearest witness, unable to fit what he heard and saw into his uncle's rational categories. The hunting trip ends without a secure explanation, leaving the Wendigo as a force that represents both an entity from northern legend and a wilderness too vast for the visitors' assumptions of control.