The protagonist of the title story is an unnamed female referred to as the granny. She is raising her granddaughter—the daughter of her deceased daughter. The granny remembers how badly she rejected her own daughter at birth—“Tie her to a fence and give her a bale of hay” (70)—and believes that the abandonment and isolation she inflicted on her daughter are why she must suffer the insolence of her granddaughter.

They are quarrelling at the start of the story and remain at odds throughout. At the news that the girl is being abandoned by her father, the girl resents her grandmother even more and blames her for the fact that she is stuck with her. The fight ends with the girl running off—a foreshadowing of the climactic conclusion: “It didn’t matter this time, how far she went” (69).

The granny’s only true companion is her little dog—loyal, playful, loving, and the last bastion of innocence. He follows her playfully as she tends to her daughter’s grave at the church cemetery. While they are there, two bikers ride up, and the girl is riding with one of them. The granny demands the bikers leave the girl with her, but when the granny drives home, the bikers pursue the two—with intent to kill.