Researching the background of the story behind "Map of the Human Heart", Nowra (screenwriter) and Vincent Ward (director) travelled through the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic and then the Canadian plains. From the beginning of the project and through the filming Nowra kept a diary. "The Fever" is an extract from the Montreal section of the filming (1992), and is part of Chapter 7 of the diary, "The Butchers are Coming".