Two drifters, George and his friend Lennie, with dreams of living off the “fat of the land,” arrive at a ranch, hoping to work for enough money to buy their own place. Lennie is a man-child, a little boy in the body of a dangerously powerful man. His obsessions with things soft and cuddly have made George cautious about who the gentle giant, with his brute strength, associates with. George’s promise to let Lennie “tend to the rabbits” on their future homestead helps to keep Lennie calm, as the overgrown child needs constant reassurance. But the ranch owner’s son is a brutal bully with a promiscuous wife, and Lennie’s encounters with them lead to tragic results. Realizing they can’t run away anymore, George is faced with a moral question: how should he deal with Lennie before the ranchers find him and take matters into their own hands?