A middle-aged man named Mero receives an unexpected call from a woman named Louise, who asks him to come back to Wyoming because his brother, Rollo, has been killed by an emu. Shocked and confused, Mero tries to understand how an emu could have killed his brother but says he will attend the funeral and drive his car, a Cadillac, which he is very fond of, instead of flying. After the phone call, Mero thinks of his late father and wonders whether he should bring a hat. 

The following day, soon after Mero begins his drive from Massachusetts, a highway patrol officer pulls him over but lets Mero go when he explains that he is on the way to a funeral. He drives until night and checks into a motel on the outskirts of Des Moines. In the morning, he prepares to drive again but collides with a truck and is hit from behind by a limo. A few spots of blood dot his shirt cuff. Still, he simply buys a secondhand Cadillac and continues driving toward Wyoming. He stops again that night and leaves four hundred miles ahead in the morning. During lunch, he calls Louise to tell her he will be there in the afternoon, and she says a snowstorm may hit today. 

When Mero has sixty miles left to drive, it snows heavily. He arrives at what he thinks is his brother’s ranch but struggles to drive in the snow, his car sliding into a hole. He decides to sit and wait, napping for half an hour; then, he exits the car and walks in the direction he thinks the ranch is. Mero’s shoes fill with snow, and as a half-skinned steer watches him, he realizes he is not near the ranch.