Synopsis:
1950’s Southern America: Claudia (12) and her mute brother, Clyde (9), live on a run-down farm with their abusive Stepfather, Murphy, who is distinguished by a tattoo of a snarling wolf on his chest. Before settling, the family were gypsy travellers, living in a scarlet caravan along with their beautiful and kind mother. Now the children’s mother has disappeared. According to their brutal father, she abandoned her family to return to her gypsy life in the scarlet caravan. Claudia and Clyde hate their cruel Stepfather and are desperate to be reunited with their beloved mother—if only they knew where she was.
When a fierce storm strikes, Claudia seizes the opportunity for her and her brother to escape from the farm and go in search of their mother. Pursued by their rampaging Stepfather, the children manage to hide and take refuge in a train’s box car for the night. When the children awake in the morning, the train is moving and they are travelling across the great American plains. Then, Claudia spots a distant gypsy encampment and what appears to be a scarlet caravan. Convinced it is their mother’s caravan, the children jump from the speeding train and hurry through the fields to reach the encampment. By the time they get to the spot, however, the gypsy caravans have gone.
A kindly Woodcutter tells the children the travellers have left in search of new crops to pick and he points them to a road which cuts through the Great Forest. As the children set off to catch up with the caravans, the Wood-cutter warns them not to enter the forest because it is home to a savage wolf who stalks all who enter his domain. However, when they find the road is blocked by a felled tree, the children are forced to follow the caravan tracks into the dark and forbidding forest.
Now, as they strive to catch up with the gypsy convoy, the savage wolf–who seems to be a manifestation of their stepfather—stalks the children. In their efforts to escape from the snarling beast, they are drawn to an enchanted cottage where an old lady, Grazelda, lives a lonely existence with her mute mechanical children. Grazelda, desperate to have company of real children, plots to keep Claudia and Clyde from ever leaving the cottage. With the aid of the mechanical toys, the children manage to escape from the wicked old lady’s clutches, but back in the forest, the wolf closes in for the kill.
Claudia and Clyde must defeat the wolf in order to complete their quest and finally discover the truth of what really happened to their missing mother.
