In the fall of 1978, on the 640-acre family ranch on Goat Mountain in Northern California, an eleven-year-old boy goes hunting with his father, grandfather, and a friend of his father's. Goat Mountain is a dry place of oak, pine, and a swampy bear wallowa place where all the family's memories are held. As the men arrive at the gate to their land, the father spots a poacher hunting illegally on his property. When he lets his son take a look through the scope of his rifle, the boy pulls the trigger. The ensuing struggle over what to do with the dead man eventually becomes a struggle between the grandfather and the boy. By the end, nothing is as it seems.