In this moving memoir told to anthropologist Serge Bouchard, Innu hunter Mathieu Mestokosho reveals a world that existed between 1890 and 1960, a culture of native trapper-hunters in a vast, hostile environment. He recalls his childhood, describes the long, difficult journeys he undertook as he and other hunters traveled the taiga in search of caribou, and explains how they were able to conserve their physical strength and keep moving "to the rhythm of the heart and drum."