Bernt is traveling from California to Utah to attend the settling of Estate after the passing of his father. He has a paranoid feeling about the trip. He is traveling alone as his girlfriend had just overcome an illness and did not want to travel. He wants to go to the settling of the estate to ensure that he receives whatever he is entitled to. This puzzles the girlfriend as he does not like his father and ran away from home in his youth. He has not been back since.

As he drives his mind drifts to memories of his father. He was a butcher. Bernt thinks it is odd that he never got blood on himself and was always very neat. He wonders if he has enough gas to get to the next station. He also wonders if he has passed the station already. He remembers that his father told him that if he left, he should never come back. Bernt wonders why he would ever want to.

An hour more into the drive, Bernt tries to phone his girlfriend but the call will not go through. He tells himself it is normal. A part of him feels like something is wrong. The radio fades in and out of static. His gas gauge has not moved.

He remembers that his father told him to follow him. He takes Bernt down into the storm cellar after telling him that every living thing on the land is his. In the Storm Cellar are hundreds of strips of drying meat. Bernt leaves the cellar, and his father asks if he saw it. Bernt says yes. Bernt’s father says that is why he cannot leave. That night Bernt leaves and never looks back.

Bernt feels like he should have reached a town by now and that something is wrong. A call to his girlfriend goes through but her voice sounds weird. The call disconnects. As he begins to panic, Bernt reaches town. The gas station is abandoned, so he makes his way to a busy diner on the main street. Inside he eats and finds an odd display in the bathroom. It is two mirrors bolted on top of one another. He goes in and out of the bathroom to look at it. He leaves the diner and drives away. He turns his car around. He heads back into the diner, breaks both mirrors, finds nothing, and carries on his way.

He turns around and drives to a hotel in the direction of home. He spends a few days drinking and staying in the hotel. Then he goes home.

When he returns home to his girlfriend. He lies and says he went and received nothing. A box eventually comes for him in the mail labeled Bernt’s Pittance. He then tells her everything and she listens. He still doesn't open it.

One night when his girlfriend is asleep, he knows he still has the box to deal with, so he gets in his car, planning to take the unopened box back to Utah.