We meet a young boy named Palmer LaRue, a nine-year-old quickly approaching his tenth birthday. He is paranoid because they will make him kill wounded pigeons according to local custom (they hunt pigeons on mass to keep the population down, and ten-year-olds are often asked to wring the throats of the wounded birds). He does not want to hurt animals, so he is scared of his birthday.
He is friends with Dorothy, but three local kids make him friends with them, three bullies named Beans, Mutto, and Henry. He begins to take on their character traits, but when he hurts Dorothy, he wonders whether they are a good influence. He catches a pet pigeon and keeps it alive in his room, naming it Nipper. The bullies find out and he fears they will kill the bird, so Dorothy arranges to take the bird and free it on her family's upcoming trip to the beach.
Palmer thinks about the bird a lot and sinks into a state of depression. He mourns the thousands of hunted birds. When the shooting day approaches, called "Family Fest," he realizes that Nipper has been caught for hunting. He is hazed on the morning of his birthday by the bullies. Then at the event, they assign him the role of "Wringer," as he feared. His father is a master hunter. When he goes to the event, he finds Nipper and saves him.
