Tama is just a helpless chick when he is rescued by Marnie, and this is where his story might have ended. Tama can speak, and his fame is growing. Outside, in the pines, his father warns him of the wickedness wrought by humans. Indoors, Marnie confides in him about her violent marriage. The more Tama sees, the more the animal and the human worldsand all the precarity, darkness and hope within thembleed into one another. Like a stock truck filled with live cargo, the story moves inexorably towards its dramatic conclusion: the annual Axemans Carnival.