Splendid Isolation

A father is desperate to save his bruised baby daughter, Belle, from an abusive, possibly life-threatening environment where drugs and alcohol are consumed in excess by his ex-wife and her new partner. He takes Belle away from Australia and eventually arrives in an un-mapped Alaskan town called Forbesberry. The people there welcome them and assist the father in caring for his daughter. One day Belle is given a tiger cub as a pet by the father who found it apparently motherless. Belle calls it “Stripy”. However, a problem arises when the growing cub clashes with sled-dogs, killing one. The father is forced by the town council to take Stripy to a faraway wilderness and there release it to fend for itself. A year-and-half on, on Belle’s 10th birthday, a meteorite strikes, its shock-wave knocking Belle off a short cliff. She regains consciousness but suffers amnesia. Inadvertently, she wonders into the wilds where on separate occasions a grizzly bear and a pack of wolves threaten her life, but on both occasions she is saved by a fully-grown tiger. However, she fears the tiger and believes it is holding her captive as future-food. There is tension and several attempts by Belle to escape. Eventually she recovers from amnesia and recognises the tiger is Stripy. There is rejoicing. But she also remembers she has a father, who may have been injured – or worse – by the meteor impact. Stripy doesn't wish to go back with her. Instead, it urges Belle to go in the opposite direction where they can live together in pristine wilderness, with plenty of prey for Stripy. They part company as both are determined to go their own way. A problem arises when a smaller but savage tiger appears. Stripy no longer has a choice but to follow Belle to protect her. Eventually Belle kills the semi-wild tiger, only to realise it's Stripy's mother. Belle attempts to find prey for her tiger, but fails. She realises the situation is dire when Stripy, starving, attacks her, but backs off. Stripy defends Belle from another grizzly-bear attack but this time, weakened by malnutrition, suffers a mortal wound. The final moment for Stripy comes atop a plateau. Try as she may, Belle cannot save the tiger. The pack of wolves catches up to an emotionally riddled Belle, who has made a death pact with her tiger. Just in time, the father arrives and scares off the wolves. Belle's trauma at the loss of Stripy doesn't lessen with time and the father is at a loss as to what to do. When he decides to take her back to Sydney to meet with her now-reformed mother, Belle refuses, fearing her father's arrest for kidnapping. Instead, she agrees to go to Texas, where her father works as a farm labourer. There seems joy in the air, but for both there is something amiss. They return to Forbesberry where a fantastical happy ending awaits: a semi-transparent Stripy and a joyous Belle come together.