Ingrid Emslie

Saul Barnard grew up in a family of woodcutters. The woodcutters are scared of the elephants in the forest, but there's one elephant that never seems to threaten Saul. Tired of being exploited by wood buyers, Saul takes a stand and his father chases him away. He goes to work on the wood buyer MacDonald's wood yard, where he gets to know MacDonald's daughter, Kate, and falls in love with her. After a few years he leaves MacDonald and joins the first prospectors in the forest, searching for gold. Millwood becomes a small town with hotels and bars and houses. Kate appears again.

L’histoire se déroule dans le Japon du XVIIIe siècle. Alors qu’une terrible tempête fait déborder la rivière, de nombreux voyageurs sont bloqués dans une auberge isolée. Parmi ces voyageurs se trouvent Ihei Misawa, un samourai sans maître, et sa femme Tayo