It is snowing in the wintry mountains of northwestern Pennsylvania. Once the land of wilderness scouts, later of the boomtowns of the first American oil barons, it is now a spare country of proud men and women hanging on to their lives, dignity, and what's left of prosperity in the declining years of the twentieth century. One tough old man, W.T. Halvorsen, is not going to let it all slip away without a fight.

And the wolves are beginning to howl again in the mountains.