THE STORY: In a remote section of the West, Brad owns the sole gas station and store. He also owns a small zoo where he cages the occasional wildcat or whatever wildlife can be caught in the area. The cages are Brad’s obsession—they remind him of man’s supremacy over nature; they remind him that he is a master in this village where everybody is in debt to him. But he is not master over his daughter Janna, who has fallen in love with Brad’s outspoken enemy, Dave Ricks. But if Brad’s weapons are force, hatred and violence, Dave’s are peace, love and gentleness. The two men battle over Wally Wilkins, an innocent boy of seventeen who was hidden away by his demented mother, and who is now free since his mother died. Because the boy is supposedly in possession of a large sum of money, Brad pursues Wally, whom Dave and Janna are escorting to safety. When Brad catches up them he realizes that his pursuit of Wally has alienated him from his daughter. At the end of a night of wild drunkenness Brad imprisons Wally in a cage. To free Wally and Janna from her father’s dominance, and to affirm the deeper strength of the gentle over the violent, Dave gives up his life.
