Victor And Harlan Are Two Young Philosophy Professors Who Have Been Friends, Rivals And Inveterate Pranksters Since Their Student Days, But Things Have Changed: Victor Has Turned Into A Wild Hedonist In Keeping With His Belief That When You're Dead, You're Dead, While Harlan Has Become A Dull Stoic Leading A Strict Unemotional Existence In Preparation For The Afterlife. They Are On Holiday With Their Long-suffering Wives In The Canadian Wilderness, And Victor Has Devised A Prank Which He Believes Will Prove The Falseness Of Harlan's Philosophy And Shake Him Out Of His Passionless State -- But The Prank Goes Horribly Wrong. After A Heated Argument A Shot Is Fired, And One Of The Professors Lies Dead