Les is a 41 year old man reflecting on a goose hunting trip he went on with his mother, Aileen, and her then-boyfriend, Glen Baxter. Glen is a communist who had an on-again off-again relationship with Aileen and a tenuous relationship with Les. Appearing out of the blue, Glen invites the two to poach geese in a privately owned lake, though Glen's communistic sentiments deny any such ownership of land. Though Aileen hesitates, Les is eager to hunt and eventually the two are convinced. While hunting, Aileen remains in the car, put off by the prospect of poaching and warning her son that, as he is coming of age, he will face adult repercussions for his actions. Les is undeterred and follows Glen through multiple barbed-wire fences, finally coming upon the lake filled with thousands of geese. Glen takes the lead, cramping down to surprise the geese and shoot as many as possible, while Les stays behind to shoot them as they fly away. Once Glen begins firing, an uproar of geese and wind begins that frightens Les, though he steadies himself enough to shoot two geese. Once the two of them have killed six geese in all, they silently regret their decisions, with Glen attempting to justify himself by saying that perhaps that is what geese are put on earth for. Aileen, unbeknownst to them, has been watching them hunt and changes her sour attitude, amazed at the geese in flight, which she likens to snow. One goose, which Glen shoots but does not kill, remains in the lake, leaving Aileen to push Glen to finish it off, calling him weak for not doing so, and telling him to do it for her. Later, Aileen reveals to Les that, though she does not love Glen, he reinforced her sense of femininity in her growing age.