A cattle heiress' husband and her ranch-hands survive the horrors of World War 2. Returning to their old America, they've been replaced by immigrant workers.

SYNOPSIS:

1945: Three soldiers head home to their ranch: GARY SCHNEIDER (husband to cattle heiress, MARIA) cradling a war trophy; CHARLIE PHILIPS (ranch hand extraordinaire) writing a poem; BENJAMIN JOHNSON (protégé, confidante, fool) reading comics.

The Rio Grande: CESAR, a young Bracero, fords the river to his American dream.

New York docks: the first clue to a secret the three soldiers have – some girl in France... While Maria sees off rustlers, the guys take in city bars, where Gary’s morphine habit becomes apparent. Days later, they arrive home. Benji meets everyone: Maria; OLD MAN PHILIPS (OMP); and CATHY PHILIPS, Charlie’s little sister. The reunion spoils as Gary spots Cesar working, his loathing of Mexicans revealed. Maria, furious, explains she kept this place going during their heroics. This doesn’t sit well with Gary, especially when he finds Charlie coaching Cesar to rope a steer. Gary and Charlie fight: roughly equal, they’re pulled apart by OMP. Gary seeks Maria to present his dagger – important, special, like her. The boys rid the yard of a tree stump: their dynamite leaving a huge crater.

Next morning, Maria watches Charlie, toiling shirtless in the sun, from her bedroom window. Gary needs morphine but where is it? Maria offers to help look. He drinks rum instead. Cesar befriends Cathy with a harmless connection. Benji, snooping for that dagger, overhears a shocking declaration between Maria & LANE, the cook. Maria and the boys head out to work & hunt. Benji reminds Gary and Charlie of the French girl - awkward. Nightfall, the Braceros aren’t invited to the barbecue, but that suits them fine. Another day dawns. Gary wakes to sounds of riding in the corral, ending badly again - Gary loses to Charlie. On the prairie, the Anglos spot rustlers. A fierce gun battle leaves dead rustlers and Gary with another wound, but he’s happy with his new trophies: the corpses. He shows them off, frightening the Braceros. Charlie & Benji leave for a supply run to Dallas. Gary, left in charge, jonesing, has a foal to deliver, taking all day, most of the night. In Dallas, Charlie and Benji find fun, the French girl’s dark presence never far. Guarding the foal, Gary shoots at the dark, waking Cesar. Their paths cross. Gary beats Cesar half to death until Maria stops it, with a pistol. Her gun goes off, grazes Gary. Cesar escapes. The others are too scared to intervene. Cesar is found, recovered, buried clinging to life, in the tree stump hole.

Dawn again. Charlie, back from Dallas, senses something isn’t right. The Braceros are miserable; where’s Cesar? Evening descends with habitual drinking, and truths are revealed. Gary goes into meltdown. He discovers the poem from Charlie to Maria, wrapped around the dagger. Weapons drawn, arguments uncover Gary’s rape of the French girl, tied up like a calf. Worse, Charlie was helping him. Maria sees more immediate problems: survival. Gary is attacked by Charlie and Maria, left with the dagger through his heart. He joins Cesar in the pit. Maria, her web sprung, takes Charlie as her own.

ROPE