Edgar Sawtelle's grandfather, John, bought a farm many years ago, before Edgar was born, and began a dog breeding enterprise. He rented out the land to another farmer, and with his wife, raised his two sons, Gar, Edgar's father, and Claude. Gar loves the dog breeding business and joins his father in it, but Claude is less enamored and moves away. Gar marries Trudy and they have a child, Edgar. They realize that he is mute but teach him sign language so that they can communicate. Edgar is good with the dogs and stays on at the farm when he grows up. His own dog, Almondine, is always at his side.
Claude returns to the farm but he and Gar do not get along. Claude leaves again after the two have a drunken altercation and a couple of weeks after that, Edgar finds his father dying in the barn. After his death, Edgar and his mother decide to keep the business running, even though there is really too much work for just the two of them. Run down Trudy contracts pneumonia, leaving the bulk of the work to Edgar. He is exhausted and falls asleep on the job, which means that the dogs are not fed on time. He pours an enormous pile of dog kibble into the middle of the barn but two of the dogs get into a fight. They are injured and the family vet is out of town. Edgar has no option other than to call on Claude for help.
Edgar is awoken one night by the dogs barking. He goes to investigate and encounters the ghostly outline of his father who communicates with him using their own special sign language, and leads him to a syringe that is probably the one that killed him. Edgar realizes that Claude has used this type of syringe before and immediately realizes that his uncle was the person who murdered his father.
There is a problem, though; Claude and Trudy are now sleeping together which makes it almost impossible for Edgar to stay at the house. He decides to test Claude when a potential buyer comes to look at the dogs, He trains the dogs to perform a scene with him, in which each dog passes a syringe to the next and the dog that has been touched falls over as if poisoned. The final dog touches Claude's leg with the syringe, which seems to disturb him enormously. He stomps of in a rage and this, to Edgar, is confirmation of his suspicions about his uncle's involvement in the death of his father.
Trudy is furious when she hears about the performance. She and Edgar begin a bitter argument which becomes a struggle. Edgar sees Claude come up behind his mother, and he swings a hay hook at him, sending him to his death, but it turns out that he has not killed Claude, but their veterinarian, Dr Papineau. Trudy wants to protect Edgar from any possible repercussions and tells him to get out of town for a while. Three dogs from the litter he raised himself follow him into the woods.
Edgar has not properly prepared to hide out in the woods. He brought no fishing equipment with him and so cannot fish for his food. He breaks into cabins that he comes across and steals food. He decides to join a community in Canada that he has heard about but as they go one of the dogs is injured and Edgar is forced to find help. He goes to a house where the owner, Henry Lamb, helps tend to the dog. Henry offers Edgar and the dogs accommodation with him until the injured dog has recovered, and Edgar accepts the offer. Henry offers to drive them up to Canada, but on the way there is a tornado. Forced to turn back, Edgar sees these challenges as a series of signs that he is supposed to go home. He leaves two of the dogs with Henry and heads back to the farm.
On the way home, Edgar stops at his father's grave. Almindine has passed too. It is a sad homecoming. He leaves a note for his mother when he arrives, because she is not at home, but Claude finds it first and tells Dr Papineau's son, Glen, who is a police officer, that his nephew is back. Glen believes Edgar caused his father's death. Claude is tying up some loose ends now that Edgar is home. He moves a bottle of poison that he keeps in the barn, but Edgar sees him. He persuades Trudy to take Claude away from the house for an evening so that he can check the barn thoroughly, and whilst he plans this, Claude and Glen plan to entrap him.
Glen finds Edgar in the barn and tries to kidnap him but Edgar finds a container of lime just in time and throws it at Glen. It blinds him temporarily and he stumbles out of the barn. Glen had brought a rag soaked in ether with him hoping to use it to make Edgar pass out, so that he could kidnap him. The ether hits a lamp and sets light to the barn. Edgar begins to move all of the dogs' records out of the barn, hoping to preserve his father's legacy. Trudy is pinned down by Glen and unable to help Edgar. Claude has hidden the poison within the papers and pretends to help Edgar but he is only trying to cover his own tracks. He fills a syringe with poison and stabs Edgar in the arm. He then tries to escape but as he does so, the barn fills with smoke and he sees the outline of his brother. Claude is unable to escape. He and Edgar both die in the barn. The dogs, though, have escaped, and they run away, into the wild.
