Perley, a fifty-nine-year-old man, loses his wife. He owns a farm in a rural area. He has one daughter, Lily who is married. They suggest to him, after a year, that he considers re-marrying. It seems that many of the local women also think this, as they continually stop by to check on him and bring him things.  One day, Bobhot Mackie stops by with his younger sister, Maureen. They say they want to do some cooking and cleaning for Perley. Bobhot leaves but Maureen stays. Perley and Maureen sleep together and are married sometime later. Perley’s daughter Lily, disapproves of the relationship.  At the wedding, which is very similar to his first wedding, he wears a white suit instead of a black one. The only person at the wedding is Bobhot. Lily and her husband Samuel refuse to go even though Samuel was the one who encouraged Perley to remarry.  Bobhot comes over a lot and eats their food. Maureen beats Perley when he says he will only grow a certain kind of potato even though Bobhot is offering to give him other seeds. He stays outside until he has to go in. They have makeup sex and he promises to plant the potatoes she wants.  Another day, Perley is up on a ladder. Maureen kicks it out from under him, angry that he allegedly did not let Bobhot borrow the brushcutter. However, Perley had watched Bobhot help himself to the brushcutter the previous night, saying nothing as he stole it. Perley begins to watch out for Maureen, feeling like he deserves her abuse. He tries to make his first wife’s biscuits and is comforted by the smell.  Maureen does more and more work on the farm. Bobhot comes to help her and then hangs out at their house. Maureen gives Bobhot the spare room, which was once Perley’s daughter’s room.  Maureen gives Bobhot a job to paint the house, so now he is around almost all of the time. Perley repairs a stone wall next to his wife’s grave. Bobhot does a terrible job painting the house. He paints it highway sign yellow.  Perley tells Maureen that he doesn’t want Bobhot around so much. Maureen disagrees and says that Bobhot is helping. Perley gets a terrible sunburn while working outside. He goes upstairs and lays in his daughter’s old room, listening to Bobhot finish his work outside.  He goes to see his daughter and tells her he thinks Bobhot and Maureen are taking over his farm. Lily essentially tells him that it is not her problem.  Perley feels like he is hired to help on his own farm. He becomes angry, ready to lash out at Bobhot, but when he arrives at his property, Bobhot is not there. He is likely out drinking or eating.  Alone, he goes and works more on his passed wife Netta’s memorial stone. He then does some work on the farm.  After dinner, Bobhot comes in drunk and aggressive. Perley asks where Maureen is and what Bobhot thinks that he is doing.  Perley goes out to the barn to sleep. Later, in the window, he sees Maureen and Bobhot together in the kitchen. Maureen yells at him. He watches Maureen check to see if Perley is around.  He watches embrace like an old couple, then go to bed together.  He assumes they have clung onto each other since they were young children. They were extremely poor. In fact, Perley and Netta would donate Lily’s old things to them. Perley thinks the siblings must’ve seen him with his daughter and their privileges.  He thinks about how he got here. He has a memory of ten years ago, walking into the Mackie fields. He remembers seeing a young girl there holding a clothesline attached to a grappling hook, a make-shift fishing pole. She is wearing baggy clothes and is dirty. He asks her name though he knows who she is. She tries to run away but he grabs her and pulls her down. Back in the barn where he is spending the night, he watches the dim lights of the empty kitchen. In the east, the sun is beginning to rise.