The book starts with George and Lennie leaving their original job after Lennie grabbed a woman's dress
George and Lennie move from place until they find a ranch where they then work on for a while
Candy is introduced. Steinbeck shows Candy to be quite a lonely character who is often treated unfairly, this is shown by Candy being peer pressured into allowing Crooks to shoot his dog
Curley is introduced. He is shown to be egotistical and unforgiving. Curley was soon quick to take a disliking to Lennie. This lead to Curley being unhappy with Lennie for not answering him. Curley then starts a fight with Lennie. George then shouts at Lennie to get him. Lennie then proceeds to crush Curley's hand.
Lennie is in the barn playing with his pup when he is approached by Curley's wife who is telling Lennie how lonely she is. She then sits next to Lennie and lets him feel her hair, Lennie feels her hair but then refuses to let go, this led to Curley's wife screaming and panicking. Lennie quickly tried to stop her and broke her neck.
Lennie runs away from the ranch just as George told him to if he got in any trouble. George looks for Lennie before the others could find him as they wanted to kill him. George found Lennie and spoke to him about the American dream for awhile before doing the kindest thig for Lennie and shooting him