EXT. SMALL WOOD. NIGHT.
DRIVING RAIN. Inman shelters under a huge tree, whose split trunk provides a mean shelter. He inserts himself into the cleft of it, a black thing in a black tree, like a troll. He stands, shivers, sodden, desolate.
EXT. SARA'S CABIN. NIGHT.
A LITTLE CABIN. Its lights coming through square windows like a
chinese lantern. Inman considers it, the risk versus the shelter. The sleet still pelts down on him and he decides to approach. Closer he can hear a sound coming from the house. IT'S A BABY'S INCESSANT CRY. HE SEES A YOUNG WOMAN WALKING ROUND AND ROUND IN THE ROOM, CLUTCHING THE BABY WRAPPED UP IN A QUILT.
Inman knocks hard on the door. The light from the lamp goes out, although the fire still gives the room a clear glow.

INMAN
I'm one man alone. I'm a Confederate soldier on furlough. I have no bad intention. I need shelter and food.
THE TINY SOUND OF THE DOOR BEING BOLTED.
INMAN (CONT'D)
Can I at least sleep in the corn crib -just for some shelter? I'll be on my waycome morning. .
No answer. Inman accepts this as a rebuttal, and trudges back towards the road.
SARA (V.O.) .
I've got a rifle.
Inman turns. A gap in the door appears, the figure barely seen.
INMAN
Fair enough.
The baby's crying behind her.
SARA
There's some beans and corn pone, all I got. You better come in.
INT. SARA'S CABIN. NIGHT.
Inman enters the cabin. It's a single room. A big fire. The baby on the bed, a rudimentary crib unoccupied next to it. The woman is already at the little stove. She turns to him. She's painfully beautiful. But sad and fragile. Inman, despite himself, is mesmerized. .

INMAN .
Thank you.
SARA
I'm alone here, as you can see, with my baby. I need to believe you mean no harm.
Inman takes out his gun. She starts, terrified.
INMAN
No, I mean to give it to you.
He turns it handle forwards and offers it to her.
SARA
I don't want it. I had my way they'd take metal altogether out of this world. Every blade, every gun.
INMAN
Is your baby sick?
SARA
He cries. I don't know. He cries a lot.
My man is dead. He took his wound at Frederiksberg. Never saw his boy.
She never once looks at him. Her eyes on the floor or the food or the baby.
INMAN
I'm sorry.
SARA
It's pretty much what you'll get if you knock on any door of this war. Man dead, woman left.
She hands him a plate of steaming beans. An onion perched on top.
SARA (CONT'D)
It's mean food but it's hot.
She goes over to the bed and picks up her baby and starts the same business of walking him, singing the while, an odd
lament. Inman eats, looks at her, at the child and the fire. He picks up the onion, bites into it. Sara looks across.

INMAN
(ashamed of his hunger)
There's no hunting on the road, just cress and -
He takes another bite. Sara picks up the baby.

SARA
I need to feed this man, if you could look away.
Inman, embarrassed, turns his back to her. He sits finishing the food while she puts the baby to her breast, slipping the shoulder from her dress. While the baby feeds.

SARA(CONT'D)
Used to have a cow, few goats. Raiders took them. Made me kill our own dog on the porch That poor creature watched over me. Nothing left now save a hog and couple of chickens to live off till spring. I'll have to kill that hog and
make sense of the flesh and divisions' which is something I never did.
INMAN
I could do that for you in the morning.
SARA
I'm not asking.
INMAN
It's what I'd gladly do for you for what you're gladly doing for me. I'm Inman by the way. That's my name.
SARA
I'm Sara. My baby' s Ethan.
INMAN
Glad to know you both.
EXT. SARA'S CABIN. NIGHT.
Sara walks ahead of Inman. She carries a pile of clothing, a pair of boots. It's still wretched outside, she hugs the
house, the porch barely offering shelter. INMAN FOLLOWS, with a bowl of steaming water and a small towel over his arm. She hands him the clothes.
SARA
You look about his size. He was another man straight up and down.
There's a palpable attraction between them, so that every exchange seems to contain a promise, a sexual charge.
SARA (CONT'D)
I don't even have a blanket.
INMAN
I got a blanket.

SARA
I'll leave you the lamp.
By the dim light, Inman peels off his clothes, sets to work with the bar of soap and the cloth to scrub himself clean. He can be seen from the window and finds himself turning away to pull off his pants.
INT. SARA'S CABIN. NIGHT.
Sara sits at the cot, still singing to the baby, then gets up, goes to the window, sees Inman dressing, walks to the
door, lets it open a little, but not so as she can be seen.

SARA
They fit?
INMAN (O.S.)
Pretty much. These boots are good boots.
SARA
I'll say good night.
INMAN (O.S.)
Good night.
EXT. SARA'S CABIN. NIGHT.
Inman settles down into the corncrib. He's cold and everything is damp and lumpy and uncomfortable. He pulls his
thin blanket around him. The wind is howling. He levers himself up, looks at the house with its warm invitation, can
almost feel Sara in there. He reluctantly settles down again.
HE HEARS A NOISE, STEPS APPROACHING. HE REACHES FOR THE LEMATS UNDER THE BLANKETS.
SARA
Will you come inside?
She stands in a shift, a blanket over her shoulders. Her body under the cotton very clear to him. She turns and goes back inside.
INT. SARA'S CABIN. NIGHT
Inman comes in. Sara is sitting on her bed. Long silence.
SARA
Could you do something for me? Do you think you could lie here, next to me, and not need to go further?
INMAN
I don't know. I'll try.

He sits on the bed as she slips under the covers, and then removes the boots, his shirt, gets under the covers. There's an electric space between them. Then Sara begins to cry, pulls his arm to open up so that she can be folded into him.
SHE SOBS, SHUDDERING IN THE BED.
INMAN (CONT'D)
I'll go. I'll go, shall I?
SARA
I don't want you to.
They lie, staring up at the ceiling, her tears falling. A FIDDLE PLAYS HEAVY WITH YEARNING...

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

INT. OLD MILL, COLD MOUNTAIN. CHRISTMAS DAY. NIGHT.
THE MUSIC CONTINUES. Stobrod is playing the fiddle, his bowing hand still lightly taped and a fingerless mitten
covering it. They're in the abandoned Mill, a derelict space, which has been cheered up with some rudimentary Christmas decorations. Ada, Ruby and Sally Swanger, her hair now almost completely white. Some token presents. Pangle is picking at a banjo, his grin infectious, and a third player, GEORGIA, with a harmonica. As they play:

PANGLE
(of Sally)
She don't speak.
STOBROD
She can't speak. I told you.
PANGLE
(smiles at Sally)
Is she feeble then?
STOBROD
No.
(to Sally)
Don' t mind him .
( to Ruby )
Hey Ruby: what about this?
He starts the tune of Wayfaring Stranger. Ruby groans.

STOBROD (CONT'D)
Don't make that face - you listen: c'monGeorgia...
And he starts up again, but this time GEORGIA BEGINS TO SING.
He's like a pale angel and sings with a soft, true voice. Ruby finds herself taken by this boy's voice and by Stobrod's
extraordinary invention as he takes the tune off on a wild journey. Ruby sits next to Ada, fiddles with her bracelets,
slips one from Ada's wrist and slides it over her own.

EXT. OLD MILL, COLD MOUNTAIN. EVENING.
They're all outside now, shaking hands.
GEORGIA
There's snow in the air.
RUBY
Don't sleep here.
STOBROD
We won't.
ADA
It's bitter, they could stop one night.
RUBY
They stop one night, they'll want to stop two.
PANGLE
This coat's warm.
STOBROD
What about next Sunday? That'll be the New Year. It's gonna be a better one.
RUBY
Maybe.
GEORGIA
The war's over in a month.
RUBY
He said that a month ago.
ADA
(shaking Stobrod's hand in
goodnight)
It started off being over in a month.
STOBROD
Miss Ada. Merry Christmas.
ADA
Merry Christmas. Pangle. Georgia.
GEORGIA
'Night.
PANGLE
'Night now.
The three women walk down the lane, the three men watch.
STOBROD
That's my Ruby.
GEORGIA
She's an original.
STOBROD
You think the Good Lord would forgive an old cold fool if he changed his mind? Ada said it herself it was bitter...

EXT. SWANGER FARM. NIGHT.
The three women head towards Sally's house.
RUBY
What kind of name's Georgia?
ADA
It's where he comes from, it's not his name.
RUBY
I know that's meant to be the ugliest state under the heavens.
ADA
Why do you care what his name is?
RUBY
(a funny look, then)
What's that cluster of Stars?
ADA
Orion.
RUBY
What about them shaped like a wishbone?
ADA
That's Taurus the bull, and that's Gemini and that's Orion's big dog, Canis Major.

RUBY
Listen to her, Sal. She's turned into a highland girl.
ADA
I could always name the stars, Ruby, that was never my problem.
They all three have linked arms. Ada imitates Stobrod.
ADA(CONT'D)
I love you darling. In case that big old sky falls on our heads. And I love you, too. Sal.
RUBY
It's sad, Sal. It's a c-a-t-a-s-t-r-o-p-h-e.
INT. ADA'S BEDROOM, BLACK COVE FARM. MORNING.
Ada at the window as, outside, SNOW FLAKES BEGIN TO FALL.
EXT. OLD MILL, COLD MOUNTAIN. MORNING.
Stobrod opens the door of the Mill. The SNOW FLAKES dissuade him from venturing further. He goes back inside.
STOBROD (OFF)
No sense setting off in snow.
THE DOOR SHUTS, FIDDLE MUSIC LEAKS THROUGH THE DOOR, FOLLOWED BY BANJO AND HARMONICA.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

INT. SARA'S CABIN. EARLY.
Sara, dressed, agitated - the baby already complaining -is urgently shaking Inman. hissing at him:
SARA
Get out of here, quick!
Inman surfaces from deep sleep.
SARA (CONT'D)
Federals are coming. They find you here it'll go bad on all of us.
Inman is up, grabbing clothes, boots, his gun.
INMAN
I can try and fight them.
SARA
No, my baby. Please no! Just get.
She pulls up the window in back of the cabin. Inman throws things out into the freezing morning. He .has his pants on, but is otherwise naked. He swings over the window and down onto the frosty ground.

EXT. SARA'S CABIN. EARLY
Inman picks up his stuff and, at a crouch, runs for cover to the wood which borders the property. He can hear horses and a commotion at the front of Sara's cabin, but doesn't look round until he's sheltered by the trees.
FEDERAL SOLDIERS, a raiding party, have dismounted and are already wrangling with Sara. Inman watches, pulling on his shirt, shivering, then his boots.

Sara is standing in front of the hogpen, as if to protect the animal, but one of the soldiers, PISTOL, barges her to one side, toppling her, and opens the gate, starts herding the hog out into the yard. A second soldier, NYM, emerges from the cabin, carrying Ethan. Sara starts up, struggles with him, is again knocked down.
INMAN HAS TO WATCH AS THEY DRAG HER OVER TO A FENCE POST AND ROPE HER TO IT I THEN SLIP THE BLANKET OFF THE BABY AND LAY IT ON THE GROUND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE YARD.
Then Sara starts to scream.
Inman is dressed. Boots on. He looks back at the yard. The men sitting, smoking, prepared to wait, their breath coming out in gusts in the freezing air. Flakes of snow fall.

PISTOL
We got all day.
SARA
My baby's sick! Cover him up! He's shaking! Have some pity.
A third Federal, BARDOLPH, chases after the chickens, gathers them up.
SARA (CONT'D)
I got nothing. I swear.
Nym gets close to her, putting his rifle to her chest.
NYM
That ain't necessarily so.
SARA
Yes! Take me inside! let's all go inside! Take my baby inside and then we'll do whatever you want .
Nym unties her. Pistol has a rope around the hog and now leads it towards the horses.
SARA (CONT'D)
(screaming)
There's nothing! You take that hog I'm as good as dead. Cover up my boy!
She's wailing, an unbearable ululation. NYM SLAPS HER, TWICE, HARD.
INT. SARA'S CABIN. DAY.
The door is kicked open. Nym pushes Sara inside, kicks the door shut, REVEALING INMAN STANDING BEHIND IT.
EXT. SARA'S CABIN. DAY.
Bardolph, a chicken in his arms, goes over to the baby.
BARDOLPH
This is ready to get a fit going. It's shuddering. It's gone blue.
PISTOL
(to Nym)
How long does he want? Hey! Leave some for the rest of us.
Pistol heads towards the cabin. As he approaches the door, Bardolph rearranges the blankets to, cover the baby. Pistol opens the door. Nym is on top of Sara. Pistol laughs, enters, and is clubbed down by Inman, who steps out onto the porch, while SARA SHRUGS OFF THE BODY OF NYM, HIS THROAT CUT.
Bardolph looks up to see Inman walking towards him. Bardolphhas left his weapon by the fence.
INMAN
Move away from the baby.
Bardolph obeys, terrified. Sara runs out, collects Ethan, gives a little moan of anguish, runs back inside the cabin.
BARDOLPH
Don't shoot.
INMAN
Take off your boots.
(Bardolph does so)
Take off your pants, and your shirt.
BARDOLPH
Don't shoot me, please. We're starving.
We haven't eaten.
INMAN
You'd better get running before you catch your death of cold.
BARDOLPH
(nods, terrified)
Thanks, thank you. I will.

AND THEN A SHOT RINGS OUT AND HE CRASHES TO THE GROUND, DEAD.
Behind Inman, Sara stands with a rifle.
EXT. SARA'S CABIN. LATE DAY.
THERE'S A HUGE FIRE GOING, WITH A CAULDRON HUNG OVER IT. THE
HOG HANGS UPSIDE DOWN FROM A TREE, BLOOD DRIPPING INTO. BOWL.
There's a sense of ritual and order: the chapters of transforming the hog into food.
Sara is inside the cabin, the door open onto the yard. She holds the baby by the fireplace, swaddled up tight.

She tries to put him to her breast, but he won't feed. She puts Ethan back in his crib, comes outside.
Now Inman is butchering the hog, chopping down either side of the spine to make two sides of meat. Now Sara is holding up a sheet of caul fat, as if it were a lace shawl. Now she's rendering the fat into lard. Now Inman's salting the two hams. Now Sara's washing the intestine. She sings all the while - I dreamed that my bower was full of red swine and my bride bed full of blood - they don't really converse. Inman continues to work.
Sara goes back inside to Ethan's crib. Inman glances back, but can hardly bear to, her anxiety so palpable. THE BABY IS DEAD. She looks at it. She takes it up in her arms. Kisses its forehead. Makes a strange stifling noise. Inman doesn't look at her.She comes out again, shovels some of the food into a plate, serves it up to Inman, gently touching him as she does so. Then serves out food for herself. Inman starts to eat.
SARA
Good?
Inman nods. She collects up the knapsacks, including Inman's, and goes back inside the house with them. Inman squats, eating, glancing back towards the cabin. There's the sudden shocking report of a revolver.
Inman, knowing what it is, goes slowly towards the house and its two dead bodies. His own face is a rictus, the eyes thin slits. If he gave into his grief it would never cease.
INT. SARA'S CABIN. DUSK.
From the house, the silhouette of Inman working outside in the day's dying light, snow falling around him. He's digging a grave. Inside the house, TWO BUNDLES, the small body wrapped in a
blanket, the other wrapped in the bed's patchwork quilt.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

EXT. CABBAGE PATCH, BLACK COVE FARM. DUSK.
Still snowing. Ruby trudges past Ada who is digging out a couple of heads of the buried cabbages.

ADA
Do you think he's dead?
RUBY
Who?
ADA
(shrugs)
This snow. Isn't it supposed to fall with bad news?
RUBY
Bad news is girls get working. I'm going to round up the animals.
(squints up at the snow)
This'll settle.
She walks past. Ada stares into the distance where
EXT. WILD COUNTRY. LAST LIGHT.
-the snow falls down on Inman. He's hardly visible in its gusting waves. Just a thin black question mark, hunched over the elements, moving slowly forwards...
EXT . OLD MILL, COLD MOUNTAIN. DAY.
THE SNOW HAS STOPPED. It's left a carpet on the ground. Stobrod, Pangle and Georgia emerge from the Old Mill. THEY MAKE HEAVY FOOTPRINTS as they set off up the hill towards the mountain.