A young girl of about 10 years lives in a solitary peasant's house on the edge of the jurassic mountains in the East of France. One day in autumn, when she is on her way to school through the forest, she observes a hunting fox. Of course, the fox flees from her, but the girl feels a strong desire to meet the fox again.rnrnDuring the following months, she spends most of her free time in the forests, exploring the nature, observing many different animals, but above all searching for the fox. Yet, she never sees the fox again before winter comes. During the winter, already knowing how to distinguish the tracks various animals leave in the snow, she follows fox's traces far across the fields, through woods and thickets. Still, she does not find the fox, but instead, she is terrified by the howling of wolves close by. In panic, she tries to run home, but seriously hurts her ankle during her flight.rnrnThe film does not explain how she manages to get back home at all; maybe, she manages to walk despite her injury, maybe her parents miss her, search for her and carry her back. In any case, the healing of her injured leg takes all the rest of the winter. She cannot leave the house any more, but spends lots of time reading books about the wild animals of the woods, above all about foxes.rnrnDuring springtime, the girl resumes her roaming in the woods. She already knows how to identify fox's kennels. Finding many of them, she finds some empty, some blocked by people who consider foxes harmful animals that should be hunted down and killed. But she also finds a kennel that's obviously inhabited. Sitting down behind the bushes some dozens of meters away from the kennel, she patiently waits for the fox to come out or to come home. But the fox, having cast its young, is particularly shy and wary, not showing itself when the girl is near. In fact, it is so disquieted that it starts removing its young to a different hole in order to hide them from the spying human. By chance, just when the fox carries one of its young out of the kennel, the girl returns and sees it leaving.

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