Capt. John Boyd (Guy Pearce) begins his journey to hell when an act of cowardice during a horrific Mexican-American War battle earns him banishment to a desolate military outpost in the barren and icy Sierra Nevada mountains. Upon arrival he is greeted by a motley group of soldiers, including his commanding officer, Hart (Jeffrey Jones), a man who has pretty much given up on life; Toffler (Jeremy Davies), the fort’s personal emissary to the Lord; Knox (Stephen Spinella), the “doctor” who never met a bottle of whiskey he didn’t like; Reich (Neal McDonough), the no-nonsense soldier of the group; and the over-medicated Cleaves (David Arquette), a cook whose meals are inspired more by peyote than culinary ambitions.

Into this bleak and bizarre world staggers a stranger, Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle), a half-starved Scot who had been traveling with a group of settlers until they became snowbound. Seeking refuge in a cave, they soon ran out of food — and were forced to consume one another. Colqhoun’s tale involves an old Indian myth called Weendigo, which states that a man who eats the flesh of another steals that person’s strength, spirit and very essence. His hunger becomes an insatiable craving: the more he eats, the more he wants, and the stronger he becomes. There can never be enough, and death is the only escape. Boyd and the others soon get up close and personal with the Weendigo legend after discovering that Colqhoun holds an incredible secret, one that eventually will present Boyd with the ultimate carnivorous conundrum: whether to eat dinner or be dinner.