The sun rises on a group of “man-apes” who are starving because there is a drought. One, called Moon-Watcher, feels a “dim disquiet” over the recent death of his father, though he does not recognize the familial relationship. He disposes of his father’s body by leaving it for the hyenas. There have been many deaths in the present hard season, including one, a baby, in his own cave. Moon-Watcher lives in the urgency of the present, so he does not remember his father after he is gone.

Moon-Watcher’s tribe forages for food, but the most vulnerable stay behind; they will eat if there is enough to share. On this first trip, they find beehives. They also meet the “Others,” another group of “man-apes” with whom they have frequent confrontations, but the two tribes merely shout and wrestle without serious injury. Fighting wastes valuable energy, so confrontation lasts five minutes, merely to satisfy “honour.” Moon-Watcher carries a berry-covered branch to a female who remained in the caves because she had been injured by a leopard.

A full moon rises. Moon-Watcher knows that it will be cold that night, but like hunger, the cold is omnipresent and ordinary. From his cave, he hears screams from the lower caves accompanied by the growls of a leopard.