A perfume of decay is in the air as a ripe summer fades into fall and birds fly recklessly through the air. Santee doesn’t like hunting birds in hot weather and sweat stings welts on his neck and arms as he aims at the animals. He works with Earl, who’d begged him to teach him how to hunt, while Santee’s dog, Noah, pants in the shade. Earl works from home in consulting and analyzes stock trends and is younger than Santee’s oldest son, Derwin.  On the first morning, Noah is eager to show off to Earl in his bird-spotting abilities and Santee watches Earl’s shooting form. Earl is a slow and bad shot and he makes excuses for each miss. Santee shoots seven grouse and Earl none. The following three Mondays were the same and Santee tells him there are only six more weeks to practice in the season and Earl agrees to practicing three times a week and pays him $100 for each session but still doesn’t hit a bird. 

Santee feels like he’s cheating the man and invites himself over to Earl’s house with a box of clay pigeons for shooting practice. Earl says he’s not worried about missing the birds and says he’s read books that say it takes years to develop the hunting instinct. Santee tells Verna that Earl has to get better or he won’t take his money. Verna comes with him to Earl’s enormous Swiss chalet but wouldn’t go inside and sat for two hours in the truck with the window up while he went inside. Santee met Earl’s thin wife and their baby and Earl tells them to watch him shoot the clay targets. The baby screams but Earl refuses to let his wife take him inside and he ends up shooting one. 

A week later, Verna, Santee's wife, calls all the kids home for dinner and they eat home-cured ham, squash, and mashed potatoes. The next day, Verna wades in the brook and gathers spherical stones of a specific shape that she paints white and lines the driveway with. Santee sees the beauty in this image and thinks it has to do something with him teaching Earl how to shoot. He takes Earl out on a rainy day and Earl grows frustrated enough that Santee wonders if he’ll quit but the weather improves quickly and Earl shoots but hits nothing. The only thing he hits that season is the clay pigeon and Santee thinks it’s all over until next November when Earl drives up to his house and shows him a new leather case for his shotgun. 

Santee tells him he’s taught him all he can and that he doesn’t want to take Earl’s money, but Earl says he just wants a companion with a dog. Santee feels obliged to go but dreads the knowledge that Earl might ruin every fall for the rest of his life. One night, he tells Verna he’s come to hate partridge hunting and the white stones and she understands what he means. Santee’s son, Derwin, overhears Earl bragging at the store about how Santee’s his hunting partner and Derwin is angry Earl didn’t know who he was and that he’s allowing Earl to take his time for free. 

The next morning, Earl drives up and begins planning their day. They set out and a storm starts and no birds are in the sky. Santee turns around as the storm picks up and Noah’s tail goes in between his legs. As they run back to their car, Earl fires his shotgun just as lightning strikes behind him and a grouse drops low and flies away, but Earl believes he hit it and directs Noah to retrieve the bird. Santee approaches the spruce that had been struck by the bolt of lightning and finds three dead grouse, steaming gently. He brings them to Earl and lies to him that he hit three in one shot, a remarkable feat, he says. Earl is overjoyed and explains to Santee the whole drive back how the shot had felt right and makes fun of Noah for not retrieving it. 

Santee drops Earl off and says they will not be hunting again because of how he treats Noah and Earl, thinking Santee to be jealous, smirks and agrees. Santee wakes before dawn next to Verna and sees it will be a cold and unclouded day. He laughs to himself at the thought of Earl plucking the three partridges and finding them already cooked.