A man, returning from the Korean War purchases an unkempt piece of land on a meadow in New Hampshire. His wife, hoping to move from a cramped, cop salary apartment into a house, berates him for the next several years, even as he makes every attempt to renovate the property’s house and barn, installing newly varnished flooring, a new stove, and a new sink. After 10 years of renovations to the house, the man turns his attention to the property’s shabby landscape, pruning an apple orchard, burning congestive brush and grasses, and installing new fencing along his 50 acre property. As he landscapes, he notices wildlife returning to the meadow and he resultantly spends hours watching deer graze near his house.   After an especially overwrought bout from seeing a garden snake slither near her, the man’s wife asks that he shoot and kill a pair of skunks she notices near the barn. He refuses to shoot the skunks, which he had noticed months earlier, and the man’s wife hysterically suggests that he loves the skunks more than her. He then recalls for her the story of a police officer who shot the head off a skunk near a police barracks creating a powerful stench that permeated the beds, carseats, and clothes of the officers for weeks.