This is an adaptation of a story by Captain Frederick Marryat who apparently wrote other adventure stories (some for children).

This one, however, doesn't have very many winners, but unlike some similar episodes where families are profoundly affected ("The night of the wolf" (a totally different storyline), "Out of focus", "The real printer's devil") I had a certain enjoyment of it...kind of like the feeling one gets trading stories around a nighttime camp fire.

Norman Rose plays a kindly man who is a fugitive no longer on the run. He's got three children, an older, devoted son who is sick with a debilitating illness (the episode opens up as he's getting bled by their family doctor), an older daughter and a middle school aged son. The doctor knows Rose's secret...he was a Romanian nobleman's valet who killed his wife in a fit of passion after she was bedding his (Rose's) wealthy employer. Rose has moved the family to a remote cabin in the Hartz Mountains in Bavaria.

There are more secrets out there, though...a wolf keeps howling in the distance. The doctor says it will stop when he leaves, as it can smell blood. Later, Rose's character and his oldest son are hunting the wolf, which keeps howling in the distance. The son thinks he sees it, and draws a bead on it with his rifle, but is stopped by his Dad...who says what the son sees is no wolf, but a beautiful woman.

This is a fascinating tale. 