The novel begins on a beautiful spring day in the Snake River Valley of Idaho. It’s the type of rare day “when everything is right and nothing is wrong” (1). Leaving his office at the end of his workday, the narrator, an adult Billy Colman, encounters a dog fight. A pack of residential dogs is fighting one old hound dog. The hound is holding his own against them, but the narrator intervenes, chasing the attackers away. Vague, emotional memories of his childhood arise, especially when he sees the hound’s battered collar etched with a child’s handwriting.

Something traumatic must have happened in the hound’s life for it to be traveling alone over such a long distance to return to his owner. The hound is old and starving, with the pads of his feet worn thin. Billy takes him in for the night, feeding him until the hound is better. Then, he opens his gate, letting the hound continue his mysterious journey. Billy understands that a dog like that can’t be penned up, as its spirit would die.

Billy settles in for a dark night of reflection upon his boyhood. He lights a fire and smokes his pipe. Lovingly examining the two polished trophy cups on his mantle, one gold and one silver.