Tim Collins, the head Ranger in Acadia National Park, must confront tragedy in his park. If it is not people swept from coastal rocks, it is people climbing rock faces without gear or training. This time a woman emerges from the forest, scraped and disheveled, claiming she and her husband were attacked by a large, light-colored bear in the Park. Her husband is missing.
Evidence at the scene of the "attack" is scant. Tim initiates a search for the man and orders the area near the alleged attack closed to visitors. This alerts the local political interests; it is peak summer season. Word of the attack, the closing and the search soon spreads to the media. "The Bear Scare/Search for the Missing Man" story gains traction and becomes the latest obsession of 24-hour cable news
Search volunteers encounter a massive "white" bear, but Tim discounts their story, though tufts of fur and tree markings support their account. The county sheriff holds spirited press conferences to placate the hounding press. Word of a "white" bear leaks and soon, Native American groups take interest in the story. A white bear, they say, a spirit bear, is sign of great significance. They move to protect this bear.
The search continues and discovers nothing. In the meantime, the relentless press hype has further dampened the tourist trade. Pressure comes from Washington. Tim is told that a "relocation" team will take care of the issue. At bag check in Bar Harbor airport, the only weapon checked out by the team is a sniper rife meant for only one thing: to kill.
Word of this is leaked to a known group of animal activists at the local University. The crowds at the press conferences turn from media circus to full on carnival with chanting protesters, Native American drum circles and a parking lot filled with satellite vans and reporters from around the country.
Then, the missing man emerges from the forest, crazed and dehydrated, but unharmed. He'd been treed by a massive blonde bear, a bear always on patrol, sensing his every attempt to escape. His opportunity to escape came when two animal activists walked by his tree wearing blonde fur. The man sprinted past them, leaving them between himself and the bear.
With half the mystery resolved, the tale of the bear deepens, but is guarded. Tim had initiated tests of the fur and casts of the bear's tracks; the results reveal that this is no Maine black bear; there is a polar bear in Acadia! A retired professor from the University admits to conducting bear breeding experiments nearby years before as part of his genetic research. This explains the bear, which now is to be relocated to a vast state park in far northern Maine.
A local outfitter with a mixed reputation, Guy Mercier, known for his dogs and his prowess for putting hunters on the largest bears taken in Maine, is hired to track the bear. Tim, Mercier and a Maine Fish and Game veterinarian make up the team following the dogs. A specialized rifle will deliver the dart meant to immobilize the bear. A select group of volunteers await dispatch to come and load the sedated bear on a sling to then be transported by helicopter to the release site. The dogs locate the bear's trail on day one and the pursuit is frantic. The day ends when Mercier's prized lead dog is mortally injured by the bear. The bear escapes.
The second day brings dogs and men deeper into the park to an island at the ocean's edge separated from the mainland by a narrow estuary. There is another confrontation and another of Mercier's hounds is killed, while a third is injured. The bear is successfully darted, but seems unfazed. Mercier, crazed now and out of dart rounds, tears after the bear on foot. Tim knows the man's intentions and races after him, hoping to stop him.
