A 62-year-old man has moved back to Oakland. After a confrontation with his neighbors about his aggressive dog, he reflects on his arrival to the neighborhood years ago, when his mother left him behind.

A mother from Houston, Texas is comforted by and indulgent in her access to wealth from her absent husband, but when her daugher is bitten by a horse that then dies the next day, she must independently complete the odious task of decapitating it so that it can be examined by a laboratory.