The first part in the woods with the trapper crew introduces a slightly dreamlike quality which is then the background for the two unlikely friends life together in the shack and developing their business in the frontier township which is a very male environment.

When the Chief Factor, inevitably, becomes aware that he is the fall guy, the pair go on the run (literally) and split up to escape downriver (literally in King Lu's case) but then seem to magically arrive back at their shack (now destroyed by the factor's men) where they are reunited and set off again for San Francisco (technically it was Yerba Buena in the 1820's). We never discover what actually happened to them, but assume they became the skeletons in the opening.

A strange tale, but well told, good acting and cinematography.