A sixteen-year-old boy is spending the summer at his grandparents' farm in New Hampshire, at the base of Ragged Mountain. He wakes at six in the morning on the day he and his grandfather have decided to go blueberry picking on the mountain, an annual trip that his grandfather hasn't made since before he was born. No one has picked the berries for twenty years, and despite his old age, the boy's grandfather can't resist the temptation. Their grandmother sends them out worriedly, plied with food and warnings to go slow.

Bearing repurposed sap pails on a yoke, the two voyagers wend their way up the mountain. The grandfather recounts the stories of the geography, why certain trees are where they are. When they finally reach the blueberries and begin picking, the boy is frustrated at his slow pace. his grandfather teaches him how to pick efficiently, and the two set to work for hours. Aching with thirst, they fill their pails and begin to trek down. The grandfather has three stops in mind - an old railroad which used to carry freight from the mountain with a rusted engine still intact, a drinking pool their uncle once frequented to read and write sermons, and a cellar where his great-grandfather had stored winter foods. They come back down to the road weighed down with berries and content.