A musician and his buddy Al are playing jazz at Saucy Sue’s when Yard Dog first begins hanging around, lurking in a way that makes people suspicious. Every two weeks, Sue’s hosts “audience night,” and random people can perform. One night, Yard Dog performs on the trumpet—and his music is otherworldly; it leaves everyone at Sue’s—the pimps, prostitutes, and hustlers alike, in tears. Strangely, all the drinks at Sue’s go bitter that night, everything from milk to vodka, and nobody can get drunk. Yard Dog keeps coming around and is a source of much gossip and intrigue. Shonda—who sings for the musician and Al—goes on a date with Yard Dog. Then, a man named “Shed” arrives, named so because he appears to have shed his skin in the bathroom of Sue’s. He comes to Sue’s looking for his brother, Yard, then disappears.

In the meantime, Shonda and Yard Dog go to a fancy event—and the musician and Al take advantage of the night to break into Yard Dog’s house to rob him for drug money. During the break-in, the musician feels magnetically pulled towards Yard Dog’s horn, which is mysteriously unbranded, and plays a note on it. At that exact moment, miles away, Yard Dog leaves his date with Shonda. Al struggles to block out the noise as the room is alighted by the sound. The temperature begins to rise, the space swirls with color, and the musician feels a malevolent force beginning to awaken when Yard Dog intervenes, calmly, as though nothing is amiss. The musician and Al are both shaken. Then, Shed appears and chastises Yard Dog for bringing the horn to Earth. In response to Al’s questions, Yard Dog describes Shed and himself as “two of the seven motherfuckers whose job it is to fuck this reality up when the time comes,” though apparently that time has not yet come. Yard Dog and Shed abandon their human forms and disappear. The lives of everyone who heard Yard Dog play the horn that night are altered; for one thing, everyone lives a very long time—and the musician never gets sick again, though he has nightmares about the malevolent force he felt.