A young man named James Turner Jr. moves out to Santa Barbara, California to start his life in a new place. James, known as Junior, picks up temporary and unreliable manual work, coming in as and when his boss requires his help, when the regular workers are unable to come in. He spends his free time watching television and reading newspapers and magazines until he goes to the nearby bar, Daggett's, in the evenings. Ironically, he never intended to become an old drunkard like all of the men he grew up with in his life but since that is the only life he has ever known, being at Daggett's and around such men makes him feel comfortable and at home. At Daggett's, Junior meets another young man, about his age, who simply orders two raw eggs with his drink. A pretty young waitress, named Daria and Junior's crush, brings out the young man's order and does not hide her interest in his affairs. Having sufficiently sparked everyone in the bar's curiosity, the young man, named Ludwig, calls for a game of dice in which the prize is a large wildcat; a serval. Ludwig is about to move overseas and is not able to bring the cat with him, and so he has to give it up. Junior is the only one who plays with Ludwig and easily beats him, earning ownership of the serval, and told to feed it eggs and meat and given a steel gauntlet to feed it with. Daria takes a big interest in the cat and offers to help Junior with its care. They buy it meat and a litter box, and decide to set up its cage in Junior's filthy apartment bedroom. They decide to let the cat loose and quickly unbolt the cage and slam the bedroom door shut before the cat catches up to either of them. The primary thing in Junior's mind is worrying about her presence in his place and how he feels he is not doing a good job of playing host. Daria seems to not pay any heed though, placing all of her attention on the care of the cat. Daria sleeps over for the night after staying up late talking about each other's lives. Daria has big dreams of owning her own restaurant one day and Junior is inspired as he never thought to dream like that for his own life before. The next morning, they cut a peephole into the bedroom door to see what the cat is up to. They see that it has destroyed its litter box and is pacing back and forth. Wearing the steel gauntlet, Junior quickly feeds it a slab of bloody meat, which it drags across the room and splatters blood all over the floor, walls, and ceiling. Before Daria leaves for work for the day, she lightly kisses Junior and calls him "sweet," to his immense pleasure. He wonders if she has a boyfriend. Junior ends up at Daggett's far earlier than usual for the day, in hopes of catching Daria. She stops by once to ask how the cat is doing and Junior asks if she is coming over later to help him take care of it and also with the hopes that they could spend more time together. She hesitantly responds that she is and they drive over together later that evening. Junior had cleaned up his entire place and picked up several household and grocery items, including a bottle of wine, in anticipation of Daria's arrival that evening. Daria didn't immediately seem to notice, making a beeline for the cat's door at first. Junior opens up the bottle of wine and some chips and guacamole for the both of them for a little while before Daria gets up to blot blood from a slab of meat for the cat. Junior gets up to don the steel gauntlet. As the feed the cat this time, they notice that the cat has ripped up all of the carpeting and ripped a hole through the plywood in one corner of the room. They spend the rest of the evening feeding the cat, enjoying the wine and chips, and generally talking until Daria says she needs to go home. Junior offers to let her stay over and she thinks for a bit before doing so. The next day, through breakfast and showers, Junior realizes that he is increasingly falling in love with Daria and desperately wants to tell her so but Daria admits that she has a boyfriend and that she cannot hang out with him anymore, even to take care of the cat. Junior does not quite know what to do with his feelings. He calls his temp boss who does not have work for him for another three days. He decides to go to Daggett's and pass time there, hopefully see Daria and talk to her about the cat and what happened. He becomes frustrated and physical with the bartender, who won't give him Daria's phone number, and is asked to leave. He ultimately ends up falling asleep in his car, not wanting to go back into his apartment and face the cat. The next morning, Junior lets himself into his apartment and feels some sympathy for the cat's plight. He sees no movement in the room from the peephole. And something compels him to open the door, slip inside, and shut it behind him.