Sometime in the twentieth-century, a man works as a caretaker at a Montana ranch. The ranch was previously owned by a former mercenary named Beauregard, who enjoyed hunting the animals there with vicious precision. Now, the ranch has been purchased by a fat, alcoholic New Yorker named Quentin, who's shown around the property by the realtor, Zim. The protagonist enjoyed his work on the ranch because it afforded him a great deal of peace. All he had to do was watch to make sure that intruders didn’t come in, which allowed him to read and keep to himself. When Quentin moves in, he disrupts the protagonist’s lifestyle. Quentin is romantically involved with Zim, which disgusts the protagonist; whenever Zim and Quentin fall out, Quentin takes to erratically breaking objects. He also brings his loud children to the ranch, making it impossible for the protagonist to have the quiet life he once had. To try to ward Quentin away from the ranch, the protagonist kills a moose and lays it out in front of the ranch for the men to see. Instead of being abhorred, Quentin and Zim dig into the flesh of the moose and eat it. The protagonist resigns from his quest to ward the man off for now.