Jody skips his chores to play by a creek and builds a flutter-mill from leaves and twigs.

The legendary one-toed bear Old Slewfoot kills the Baxters' sow Betsy but does not eat her.

Penny and Jody hunt Old Slewfoot but fail; the bear badly wounds their hunting dog Julia.

Penny and Jody travel to the Forresters to trade their useless hunting dog Perk for a new rifle.

Penny and Jody cross the St. John's River to Volusia to trade deer meat and visit Grandma Hutto.

Oliver Hutto arrives home from a sea voyage and distributes gifts including silk, tobacco, and a knife.

Lem Forrester and two brothers attack Oliver; Jody bites Lem and is knocked unconscious defending his father.

A rattlesnake bites Penny while he tracks stolen pigs; he kills a doe and uses her organs to draw out the venom.

Mill-wheel Forrester takes Jody into the woods, and Jody finds the orphaned fawn and carries it home.

Eight days of torrential rain flood the homestead and destroy the Baxters' crops entirely.

Penny and Jody join the Forresters on a post-flood bear hunt, earning enough money for Christmas supplies.

After a two-day chase through the swamp, Penny shoots and kills Old Slewfoot at a creek crossing.

When Oliver Hutto returns to town, the Forresters disappear and Grandma Hutto's house is found ablaze.

Oliver and Twink marry and depart by steamboat for Boston with Grandma Hutto, leaving the Baxters behind.

Ora shoots Flag, and Jody chases and kills the wounded deer; he runs away and is rescued by a mail boat before returning home.

The Yearling follows young Jody Baxter through one transformative year on the Florida frontier, beginning with the loss of the family's sow to the legendary bear Old Slewfoot and a failed hunt that leaves their best dog badly wounded. A trip to the nearby town of Volusia brings conflict when Lem Forrester and Oliver Hutto come to blows, drawing Jody into his first real fight and teaching him that men can be as brutal as animals. The summer turns dangerous when a rattlesnake nearly kills Penny, but the tragedy leads Jody to adopt an orphaned fawn he names Flag. A devastating flood ruins the crops and forces the family to hunt alongside the Forresters to survive the winter, while Old Slewfoot continues raiding the homestead until Penny finally kills him in a climactic two-day chase. Joy at Christmas is cut short when the Forresters burn down Grandma Hutto's house, driving the Huttos away to Boston and leaving the Baxters more isolated than ever. The story ends with Flag destroying the family's crops, Jody forced to shoot his beloved deer, and a desperate runaway journey that ends with his broken return home.

The headline events of the Baxter family's turbulent year.

Penny, Ora, and Jody share a rare playful family dinner together on a spring evening.

Jody spends a night at the Forresters', plays with Fodder-wing's wild pets, and witnesses a rowdy midnight music session.

Penny shoots a deer with his new rifle, and he and Jody carry the carcass to Volusia to trade.

Jody throws a potato at Eulalie in Boyles's store; Penny makes him return his harmonica as punishment.

Jody goes to deliver Oliver's message to Twink but discovers she has already left on a boat for Sanford.

A plague called black tongue spreads among wild animals that drank tainted water after the flood.

Fodder-wing dies before he can meet Flag; Jody stays through the night keeping vigil beside his friend's body.

The Baxters join the Forresters to bury Fodder-wing under an oak, and Jody delivers a prayer at the graveside.

Buck Forrester gives Jody Fodder-wing's prized red bird as a keepsake to remember his lost friend.

Old Slewfoot kills the Baxters' fattest pig, and Penny slaughters all the hogs to preserve their meat.

A wolf pack kills the Baxters' calf; the Forresters poison most of the wolf pack while Penny refuses to help.

Buck dons Old Slewfoot's bearskin at the Christmas church gathering in Volusia and terrifies the congregation.

Penny's arthritis flares and a groin injury from field work leaves him bedridden, forcing Jody to manage the farm.

Despite the fence Jody built and corn he replanted, Flag breaks through and destroys the crop again.

Rescued by a mail boat and left in Volusia, Jody walks past Grandma Hutto's burned house and realizes he has nowhere else to go.

Behind the major turning points of The Yearling lies a rich tapestry of significant moments that define the Baxter family's world and the community around them. Early in the year, a rare playful family dinner, a rowdy overnight at the Forresters', and Jody's humiliation in Boyles's store establish the rhythms of scrubland life and its colorful characters. The death of Jody's friend Fodder-wing brings collective grief that unexpectedly deepens the bond between the two families, sealed by a graveside prayer and the gift of a red bird. Natural disasters compound the family's hardships as plague kills the wildlife, a wolf pack slaughters their calf, and Old Slewfoot continues to raid the homestead until Penny slaughters all the hogs to preserve their meat. The Christmas season briefly lifts spirits when Buck dons the slain bear's hide to terrify the church congregation, but Penny's declining health soon leaves Jody shouldering the farm work alone. Flag's relentless destruction of the crops pushes the family to its breaking point, leading to Jody's failed escape and a desolate walk past the ruins of Grandma Hutto's house.

The secondary moments that shaped the Baxters' difficult year.

Penny chooses not to punish Jody for skipping chores, privately resolving to let his son enjoy his boyhood.

Penny reveals that Lem Forrester gave him the nickname 'Penny' long ago to mock his small, malnourished frame.

Jody hides in the woods and watches a fawn nurse from its mother, becoming enchanted with the idea of owning one.

Jody realizes that Penny outwitted the Forresters by honestly admitting that Perk was a worthless hunting dog.

Penny's rattlesnake bite forces Jody to run alone through a building storm to the Forresters' cabin to get help.

Mill-wheel rides Jody into the woods to search for the fawn, then leaves him to find it alone.

Ma Forrester tells Jody that Fodder-wing had chosen the name Flag for the fawn before he died.

Jody watches a raccoon family at the sinkhole and feels Fodder-wing's presence so strongly that he can accept the loss.

On the way to visit the Forresters, Jody stops and watches two male bears fighting upright in the woods.

Penny refuses to help the Forresters set poison for the wolf pack, insisting that poisoning animals is not fair fighting.

Grandma Hutto falsely claims she left a lamp burning near the curtains, taking blame for burning her own house.

Flag tramples Penny's newly planted tobacco crop, eliminating the family's plan to earn extra income for the year.

Penny summons Jody to the ruined cornfield and tells him that he must shoot Flag to save the family.

When Jody refuses to kill Flag, Ora seizes the gun and shoots the deer; Jody screams that he hates his parents.

Jody returns home, kneels beside his weakened father, apologizes, eats a meager dinner, and falls asleep weeping for Flag.

The Yearling is at its heart a story about the moments that transform a boy into a man, and this pool captures the pivotal decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that mark that journey. From Penny's quiet choice to protect Jody's innocence, to Jody's dawning awareness of adult complexity seen in Penny's swindle of the Forresters and the brutal fight over Twink, the early events show a boy slowly awakening to the world's realities. The rattlesnake crisis forces Jody into an act of desperate solo courage, and the discovery of the orphaned fawn, its naming by the dying Fodder-wing, and a transcendent moment at the sinkhole reveal the deep spiritual bond Jody has with nature. As Flag grows wilder and the family's survival grows more precarious, each revelation — Penny's refusal to poison wolves on moral grounds, Grandma Hutto's self-sacrificing lie, and the deer's destruction of the tobacco — signals an escalating loss of innocence. The story reaches its emotional climax when Penny issues his heartbreaking ultimatum and Ora forces the crisis by wounding Flag herself. The pool closes with Jody's quiet return home, a reconciliation that marks the grieving, irreversible birth of a young man.