The story starts when two traveling laborers, named George Milton and Lennie Small, are on their way to a job loading barley at a California ranch. . They spend one night along the Salinas River before going to the ranch that they were to work at. Because Lennie is slow, mentally, George acts as Lennie's guardian. They have been traveling together for a long time, since the death of Lennie's Aunt Clara. Also, Lennie's habit of petting soft things, such as a mouse or a rabbit, often gets them into trouble, which forces them to find a new job. Their dream is to own their own place and be their own bosses in the future. In their farm, Lennie wants to take care of rabbits and grow vegetables for them.When arriving at the ranch, an old man named Candy and his dog meets them. Candy then explains to them the ways of the ranch and the personalities of the other ranch hands. Soon, the boss enters the cabin to visit with his new workers, who is mad because Lennie and George are late for their first day. The boss asks a lot of questions, in which Lennie isnt supposed to say anything, so George has to answer all of the questions. Eventually, Lennie answers one question in his own way. The boss ends up questioning them. Then we meet Curley's seductive wife. As usual, she is "looking for her husband" as an excuse to meet and attempt to seduce the other workers. Of course, George and Candy ignore her, but Lennie thinks otherwise. As George warns Lennie to stay away from her, Lennie shows that he wants to leave because he says its mean there. George says that they will leave as soon as they have enough money to get their farm.Soon, we get introduced to Slim, who announces that his dog just had puppies. He talks with Carlson about killing Candys old and frail dog and replacing it with one of the newborn puppies. Lennie is then trying to convince George to ask Slim if he can have a puppy. Afterwards, George talks with Slim about his relatio...
