The narrator and his friend, Jun, are talking about catching cicadas, a kind of natural pestilence that occurs every summer. One day, they are playing when they see a strange man in the distance. He has no pupils, and his eyes are glowing with green light. The narrator calls out to his friend to come over and investigate what is wrong with the man, but he is too scared to do so. When he does, he sees the man jump to another tree, and the two boys run into the woods. They find the strange man on the tree, covered in scars and blood. The man tells them that he is the father of one of their friends, and he eats the man's stew that night.