At a raucous Alaskan gold rush saloon called the Malamute Saloon, locals drink and gamble. Dangerous Dan McGrew plays a solo card game alongside his companion, the lady known as Lou when a weary, rough-looking miner stumbles in from the bitter cold, pays for drinks for the house, and confronts Dan McGrew over an old grievance. The piano music stops abruptly, the lights go out, and gunfire erupts. An adaptation of Robert W. Service’s poem.