Shortly after breaking up with his girlfriend of three years, up-and-coming accountant Ben Biggman gets a visit from his uncle Leon that changes his life. Ben's lady barely has her teapot collection and two cats moved out of the apartment, when Leon shows up with his collection of vintage muskets, rifles, arrow quivers and a blood hound. Having heard about the heartbreak, Leon makes it his mission to give Ben a new purpose in life (and also to sleep on the living room futon since he's been laid off from the window factory).
Ben comes home from a particularly
grueling tax season day to find a skinned, dead animal of specious origin on
his stove, browning in a cast iron skillet. "It's good eatin! One hundred
per cent organic and natural, certified!" shouts Leon at seeing Ben's nose
and mouth all wrinkled up together.
Soon the two are on a quest to
track every edible small mammal in the woods outside Cleveland. From gopher to
wood vole, they kill and eat them one by one. Ben's bookkeeper sensibility ensures
each critter is fully tested for disease and its location geotagged, while Leon
perfects his recipe for Brunswick stew. By the time four seasons have passed
Leon's got a good little catering business going, and Ben's learned to live off
the land with just a rifle and his sharpened wits.
