[1][2] The tale centers upon a poor family in rural Spain and the gradual mechanization of their environment.
Soon after, a railway is put through the field, which further ruptures the tranquility of the bucolic countryside and foreshadows the ending of the tale.
Eventually the family's economic situation forces the father to sell the cow, which is taken away on the train for slaughter and gives the work its name.
Years later, Pinín is drafted to fight in the war and departs on the same train as the cow, an act that implies his future death.
At the same time, it implies that the slaughter of innocents is a result of modernity and the city's expansion into rural areas.