A pioneer of the Montana school, strangely little known to the general public, today considered a classic. A probe of the human soul, Thomas Savage traces the slow deterioration of the relationship between two brothers from a wealthy ranching family whose harsh and hard-working daily life is disrupted by the arrival of a woman.

"Thomas Savage is a first-rate author, he possesses all the qualities of great novelists, the ability to dazzle and move... few contemporary American writers have produced such a remarkable body of work."
The New Yorker

In the mid-1920s, on the wild plains of Montana, two forty-something brothers hold the reins of the vast family ranch alone. While the younger brother, George, struggles to assert himself among the workers, the older brother, Phil, a brilliant mind and notorious misogynist, reigns tyrannically over the property. Despite their differences, the two men live in perfect harmony.

But when George marries the widow of a doctor driven to suicide by Phil's repeated humiliations, the harmony is irreparably broken. Through this union, he exposes Rose's son, a delicate and sensitive young boy, to the secret lust of a vengeful brother, and unwittingly lays the foundations for a terrible tragedy...