A young Englishman touring Scotland found himself on one of the smaller Shetland Isles as night was falling and a storm was blowing in. He had resigned himself to seeking shelter in a cave, when a young woman found him and offered him the shelter of the cottage she shared with her mother.

In the middle of the night, he was woken by a wolf that had entered the cottage and was attacking him in his bed. He grabbed the wolf by the throat and tried to stab at it with his dagger. Suddenly the wolf wrenched itself free of his grasp and fled out of the cottage door.

At breakfast the next day, the young woman was wearing a a handkerchief around her neck. Somehow it fell away and the young man saw it had been hiding five bruises, clearly the marks of four fingers and a thumb. The young man fled in horror.

Outside the cottage he turned and saw a huge gray wolf leaping towards him. Unarmed he prepared to grapple again with the wolf. However, he was shocked to find a young woman, rather than a wolf, fall into his arms.

In the next instant the young woman had transformed once again into a wolf and bounded, howling, away from the young man. He ran for some time as fast as he could away from the cottage. Finally he turned to look over his shoulder and saw, in the distance, the young woman standing at the edge of the cliff wringing her hands.