The unexpected plot twist in Rick Bass’s "The Hermit’s Story" comes when Ann and Gray Owl are lost in the intense snowstorm. Gray Owl walks onto the frozen lake and disappears beneath it. Ann assumes that Gray Owl has drowned, and this leads the reader to believe this as well. When Ann sets out onto the lake, Bass leads the reader to believe that she will either drown too or find Gray Owl’s body. But when she looks down into the space where Gray Owl vanished, she discovers that he is safely standing in a space below the ice. This is unexpected because it is not common for there to be a safe place to wait out a storm underneath a frozen body of water.

Ann finds that there is a warm, almost magical place underneath the frozen water that is the result of a period of cold weather the previous October. This demonstrates how unusual, mysterious, and helpful nature can be. It suggests that human beings should find a way to embrace nature in its unpredictability. In the end, Ann reflects on this day and how it allowed her to see the world from a dog's perspective. In this way, the plot twist also flips people’s perspectives on the natural world, allowing readers to see what the world is like from the point of view of other living creatures.