A poetic love story that follows Manchester and Noon as they enjoy a long, hot, summer romance. Noon is our narrator, a shy taxidermist who keeps a silent menagerie in the freezer alongside Manchester's ice pops. Manchester documents their affair, creating wonderfully charged images with just a couple of cheap, instamatic cameras. When a wealthy gentleman called Franny discovers Manchester and launches his photography on the art world, the success destroys the beauty of their once idyllic life.

A man living in rural Wisconsin takes care of his bed-ridden mother, who is very domineering and teaches him that all women are evil. After she dies he misses her, so a year later he digs her up and takes her home. He learns about taxidermy and begins robbing graves to get materials to patch her up, and inevitably begins looking for fresher sources of materials. Based closely on the true story of Ed Gein.