The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files.

In this episode, Dudley, Arkansas, is the site of the latest investigation for Mulder and Scully, who are sent to find a missing poultry inspector.

The case takes a twist when another poultry worker is shot after she goes insane, leading Mulder to believe that certain townspeople are cannibals.

Spotnitz was inspired to write the episode after thinking of cannibalism occurring at a chicken processing plant, an idea that he thought was one of the most despicable and vile things.

In Dudley, Arkansas, government health inspector George Kearns follows his seemingly young lover, Paula Gray, into the woods.

When Kearns is reported missing and a witness claims to have seen foxfire near Dudley, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigate.

While giving the agents a tour of the plant, floor manager Jess Harold claims that Kearns held a vendetta against Chaco Chicken.

Noticing the plant's blood-red runoff in a nearby stream, Mulder orders a reluctant Sheriff Arens to dredge it.

Using FBI records, Mulder and Scully find that eighty-seven people have vanished within a two-hundred mile radius of Dudley over the past half-century.

Mulder suspects that the town's residents are practicing cannibalism in order to prolong life, possibly explaining Paula's youthful appearance.

In narration, Scully explains that Chaco's plant has been closed down by the Department of Agriculture, and that twenty-seven Dudley residents have died from Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.

[5] Spotnitz was also inspired by the thriller Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) (about a town that holds a terrible secret)[6] and an article he read while a student at University of California, Los Angeles about salamander cannibalism and how such behavior makes the animals sick.

[6] When the episode was being scripted, these ideas were later supplemented with medical research about kuru, a very rare, incurable neurodegenerative disorder that was formerly common among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea.

[8] Howard Gordon came up with the idea to start the episode with a love affair between George Kearns and Paula Gray.

In a retrospective review of the second season, Entertainment Weekly gave "Our Town" a C+, describing it as "scary — but mostly because of what transpires in a chicken processing plant.

[12] Robert Shearman, in his book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode two stars out of five.