One day, when the old, one-eyed wolf comes back from a day of hunting, he pauses at the mouth of the cave, and he is surprised by the "remotely familiar" sounds and finds five young wolf cubs in the nest. Since this is not the first time that he has been a father, he understands what has happened. Likewise, when he approaches the cubs and is violently repulsed by the she-wolf, he accepts the rebuke knowingly. The she-wolf, "in her instinct," knew that male wolves had often "eaten their new-born and helpless progeny." The old, one-eyed wolf accepts his new role and position, which is now, for the most part, to go out and forage for food and bring it back to the female, who then feeds it to her cubs.
Another famine, however, is soon upon the countryside, and the male wolf cannot find food for his family. He tries to kill a porcupine, which protects itself by rolling into a ball; later that day, the old wolf comes upon a ptarmigan bird, which he kills, and, out of instinct, begins to eat — then, remembering his duty, he carries the ptarmigan back to the den. Another time, he watches a female lynx, but he knows that she is too dangerous to allow herself to be attacked and killed. As he watches the lynx, though, he sees it give the porcupine a death blow, but before the porcupine dies, it wounds the lynx sufficiently enough to drive it away; consequently, old One Eye is able to wait until the porcupine dies and then carry it back to the lair.
The she-wolf's instinctive fear of the father of her progeny is abating; "he was behaving as a wolf father should." Meanwhile, one gray cub is drifting away from his brothers and sisters. The others, coincidentally, seem to have a trace of fur which indicates that they are closer to the domestically raised mother in their instincts, whereas, in contrast, the gray cub seems to be related closer to the pure wolf stock. Furthermore, the gray cub is the fiercest and most adventuresome of the litter.
In the time of the great famine, when there is no more meat, and there is no more milk from the mother's breasts, the other cubs die from starvation. Only the gray cub is left — due to his natural superiority. The survival of the gray cub is a reiteration of London's theme concerning "the survival of the fittest," nature's way of assuring the continuance of a species.
Sometime during the famine, old One Eye leaves, however, and never comes back. The cub cannot understand this, but the she-wolf knows, instinctively, that he has been killed by the lynx.
