On a Sunday afternoon in late spring, Homer and Betts Delaney decide to take their son Dale on one of their rare trips. Not owning a phone or car, the farming family typically lives in undisturbed isolation and does not leave the farm often. Everyone is excited to go on the trip, and they head out on foot into the sprawling prairie. Their destination is Dip, the skeletal bones of an old horse. The family, especially Dale, seems to be familiar with the dead horse, and everyone is happy to be visiting again. They eat lunch and engage in casual, philosophical discussions about life and death. Homer picks a small wildflower growing from the skeleton and hands it to Dale, calling it a piece of Dip’s immortality. They say goodbye to Dip, and Dale keeps the wildflower with him. After stopping to swim in a stream, they begin the walk back home in the evening. All three members of the family silently contemplate their state of aloneness and personify the nature surrounding them. The family arrives back home, and Betts discovers the wildflower crumpled on the ground. She turns away from cosmic thoughts and remembers the more immediate worries of feeding her family.