Confronted by the changes of the modern era, Hewey, an open range cowboy, had made decisions he felt would best suit the new world of the early twentieth century, yet four years later, he remains haunted by his choices and struggles to make things right once more.

"Hewey Calloway, one of the best-loved cowboys in all of Western fiction, returns in this novel of his younger years as he and his beloved brother Walter leave the family farm in 1889 to find work in the West Texas cow country. The brothers are polar opposites. Walter pines for a sedate life as a farmer, with wife and children; Hewey is a fiddle-footed cowboy content to work at six bits--75 cents--a day on the Pecos River ranch owned by the penny-pinching...

"Elmer Kelton's Hewey Calloway, one of the best-loved cowboys in all of Western fiction, returns in this novel of his middling years, as he looks for work--but not too much work--in 1904 West Texas. Hewey Calloway had intending to pass straight through Durango, Colorado, en route to visit a friend several miles northeast of the city. He had left his home range about a year before, with a herd of young horses. It was supposed to be a relatively straightforward...