A woman named Marie attempts to bond with her children--her videogame-addicted son Josh and her younger daughter Abbie--while harboring memories of her own mother's abuse and neglect. Her husband, Robert, is tremendously agreeable. She takes her children to get a new puppy, passing a beautiful cornfield that her kids don't connect to the way she does.

Callie, the woman they are picking the puppy up from, has chained up her young son Bo in the backyard, so he can run around it like a dog. Bo often ends up darting across streets in front of traffic. He is meant to be taking medication, but his meds have caused him to pound his fists, sometimes hurting himself, like when he smashed a glass tabletop, so she felt like the solution was to chain him where he could run around in the backyard. She does this with the intention of keeping him safe. She really wants the family coming to take the puppy because before, with kittens, her husband Jimmy had to kill them. She doesn't want him to have to kill the puppy, too, which they can't take care of. She doesn't want him to be upset. When he thinks she's being a "smart ass," he pinches her, hard, and drags her around the room. She doesn't seem to think of this as abuse. She just wants to sell the puppy and have a quiet intimate night with Jimmy.

Marie's children love the puppy. Marie is disgusted by the state of the house (run down and cluttered and gross), but she tries to be gracious and not show it. Marie looks out the window and sees Bo chained to a tree in the back yard. She is horrified and announces they won't take the puppy, even for free (which Callie desperately offers). Outside, in the car, she wishes she could tell the boy she saw his life will get better. She plans to call Child Welfare.

Callie takes the puppy into the cornfield to leave it to starve, and plans to give Jimmy $20 of her savings and tell him the family bought it. She thinks about a nun once telling her she makes bad choices in life. She thinks "loving someone was liking how he was and doing things to help him get even better." She thinks that's what she is doing with Bo.