Abandoned by his mother after the accidental death of his beloved younger brother, Ty Bonte spends his days working on the family ranch with his violent father and his nights marauding with his mean-spirited drinking buddy, Harney Rivers. When a drunken fight escalates into the near-death of a young Indian, Ty flees his Nebraska home. Twenty-two years later, Ty is a horse trainer in Kansas, sharing his life with a young woman named Dakota. Their comfortable existence is shattered by a visit from Harney, who commits an act of brutality that forces Ty to face up to his own violent past. Returning to Nebraska, he finds his dying father fighting the bank's foreclosure on the ranch. In an explosive courtroom confrontation with Harney, Ty finally comes to terms with the past and in the process is able to forgive himself and his family.

"Connect to and enlarge upon the myth of the Wild West . . . and vividly portray cowboy life in all of its degradation, violence, and romance."--Chicago Tribune