Set around the 1940s, a thirteen-year-old boy pursues the purchase of a puppy he saw in a newspaper ad, and receives an unexpected sexual experience from the woman who sells him the dog.

When a mother takes her children to buy a puppy from another mother, she finds an unsettling household and a child chained like a dog in the backyard. Through their alternating narratives, both mothers reflect on what it means to love your children.