A young boy watches fellow townspeople Barrel and Rooster cause a scene at an ice cream event in his town. Barrel makes fun of Rooster, who has a speech impediment, then proceeds to go up to each woman serving ice cream and tell them he likes strawberry until they serve him. Barrel was not overweight before the war, but once he returns, he can eat anything. The town's pastor also served in the war as a chaplain, and since his recent return the town was able to put on their ice cream suppers. The boy stays near Daddy and watches the people around him. He sees Rooster trying to get strawberry ice cream like Barrel did, but the women serving tell him they are all out. Rooster walks away, and Barrel continues making fun of him and demanding the attention of all the townspeople. When Barrel looks to see where Rooster has gone, he sees Rooster sitting next to the town drunk Margery Scott. The boy does not understand why everyone but Margery was invited, but he notices that no one is looking at her. When Margery and Rooster move from their sitting place, the boy approaches where they were to find a brown bottle there, but it's not soda like he thought it was— it smells like cow pee. Daddy comes up behind the boy and tells him he better never find his son with one of those bottles again.

All the townspeople start walking towards Rooster and Margery, forming a crowd around them. Rooster moves away from Margery, and everyone stands quietly. The little boy can tell something bad is about to happen. Margery begins leading her version of a drunken service: she raises her hands and voice and starts singing a hymn. The townspeople join in, thinking it is all in good fun, but when the song is over, Margery takes her brown bottles and smashes them against the ground, damning individual townsmen as she does so. The boy thinks that someone has to stop her. To hurt her. He goes away and puts his face against the fence.

As Daddy continues watching, the preacher approaches Margery. The father thinks the preacher will stop her, but instead he plays along. He says a prayer, and Margery is satisfied, thinking the service is concluded. Then, the preacher defies her expectations: he tells her an offering must be made. The preacher picks up two stones and hurls them at Margery, who begins to bleed. The crowd is silent until Rooster begins laughing and Barrel yells at him to shut up, then everyone disperses.

In the car on the way home, the man drives. His daughter asks how the preacher could hurt Margery like that, to which her mother responds that Margery is bad. The mom and daughter begin to drift off to sleep, but the boy stays wide awake, silent. The father thinks that he has nothing to do with Margery or what the preacher did to her. But he realizes that in all the preacher's prayers, he says the word "we." The man realizes that all the townspeople are involved, and he becomes afraid.