George and Lenny are two fiends roaming around the span of american west in search of a meaningful stable life. They don't have anything of their own, except of course the dream to have their own little place some day. They find a place to work. A farm that is helpful and cruel to them in turns. They find that it is a strange world that is very difficult to come to terms with it and as they go about their business, dreams die and ultimate betrayel sets in.

It is a fairly ordinary story. However, since John Steinbeck is a great American writer ( and ther aren't that many), critics have spent enough time on it to find out things to praise and worship.