Hwang tells the story of Sprout, a lovable hen destined to live out her life fenced in a chicken coop on a farm. She lays eggs and the farmer arrives each day to collect them; it is an unfulfilled life of monotony. Sprout spends her lonely days looking out through the chicken wire and gazing at the barnyard hens walking around the farm with their chicks in tow. Sprout yearns for babies of her own -- her initial nagging wish is "to hatch an egg and watch the birth of a chick." Watching her eggs disappear with the farmer each day is heartbreaking for Sprout, and she stops eating, grows weak, lays soft eggs, and is eventually selected to be culled. Miraculously, Sprout escapes from the mass grave of poultry and ends up loose on the farm, a place that she always wanted to be. Yet, she finds herself constantly struggling to survive. She spends her days and nights hiding from a hungry weasel and she also has multiple confrontations with some cruel farm animals. This is not a relaxing life for a sweet hen who just wants to be a mother, and it makes for a pretty stressful and disturbing read.