A couple lives next door to their landlords, who are a couple as well. The tenants take pleasure in caring for a handful of quails, feeding them cracked corn. Though the landlord is concerned about his garden, the tenants reassure him that so long as they feed the quails adequately, there should be no trouble. The woman landlord finds the birds getting into their plants and warns her partner that if the birds eat their food, they'll have nothing to eat for the winter. When the cold winter comes around, the birds have disappeared. The tenants comfort themselves, saying that the birds surely have just flown to a warmer area nearby, and that by winter's end, they will return. Once spring has sprung, the birds remain missing. One day, the male tenant happens upon his landlord in the garage, with quail plumage and pieces of skin on the feathers. The tenant immediately understands what the landlords had done, and upon inquiry, is told by his landlord that they caught the quails when they were huddled together to stay warm in the winter. The landlord tells him they were fine eating for the winter. Though the tenant doesn't tell his partner, she knows deep down what happened. The cracked corn they kept in hopes that the quails would return turns to rot and they dispose of it.