Rev. Maclean raises Norman and Paul with fly fishing as a spiritual practice, teaching that grace is found in nature.

Norman begins working for the United States Forest Service at fifteen years old.

Paul becomes a newspaper reporter in Helena and develops serious gambling and drinking habits by his early twenties.

Norman travels to Helena to ask Paul to join a fishing trip with Jessie's troubled brother, Neal.

Norman and Paul fish the Big Blackfoot River alone together in the days before the planned trip with Neal.

Paul is arrested after a drunken restaurant brawl in which he knocks out a man's teeth for insulting his Native American date.

A police desk sergeant warns Norman that Paul's gambling debts and repeated arrests are becoming life-threatening and begs him to intervene.

Neal arrives in Montana, sneaks out drinking his first night, and meets a prostitute named Old Rawhide at a local bar.

Norman and Paul take Neal to the Elkhorn River for a family fishing trip, but Neal refuses to fly fish and uses bait instead.

Neal and Old Rawhide steal all of the brothers' buried beer and are found passed out naked and badly sunburned on a river sandbar.

Paul suggests that he and Norman visit their parents in Missoula and go fishing with their father.

The three Maclean men share a joyful and perfect final day of fly fishing together on the river.

Norman and Rev. Maclean watch from the bank as Paul catches the last fish they will ever see him land.

Police arrive to inform Norman that Paul has been beaten to death with a revolver and his body left in an alley.

Norman and Rev. Maclean grieve together and conclude that they loved Paul completely without ever fully understanding him.

Rev. Maclean raises his sons Norman and Paul in western Montana, teaching them fly fishing as a spiritual discipline that shapes their identities and their bond. Paul grows into a charismatic but self-destructive young man — a gifted fisherman and a hard drinker who gambles recklessly and brawls in defense of his principles. During the summer of 1937, Norman tries to reach his brother through fishing, but Paul's trouble with the law and his mounting debts signal a life careening out of control. A disastrous fishing trip with Jessie's alcoholic brother Neal tests the family while Paul's behavior continues to worsen. One last perfect day of fly fishing with their father offers a fleeting, bittersweet grace before the tragedy that follows. The following spring, police bring word that Paul has been beaten to death, and Norman and his father must find a way to grieve for a man they loved without ever truly understanding.

The headline story of Paul's decline and the Maclean family's loss

Norman and Paul have one serious childhood fight that injures their mother when she steps between them, and they never fight again.

Paul agrees to fish with Neal only as a personal favor to Florence, Jessie's mother, whom he deeply loves.

Florence and the family load Kenny's truck for a picnic while Norman tries and fails to interest Neal in fly fishing.

Norman fishes for small trout on the Elkhorn while privately debating whether to offer Paul money to cover his gambling debts.

Norman makes a perfect cast into willow bushes and hooks a large brown trout that escapes by jumping into a bush as Paul watches.

Norman asks Paul if he can help him financially, and Paul ignores the offer but deflects by saying they should focus on helping Neal.

A storm breaks on the Elkhorn and Jessie and Florence scold Norman for leaving Neal alone during the family picnic.

Norman decides to ease the family tension by retreating to the Seeley Lake cabin for a few days and invites Paul to join him.

Neal and Old Rawhide show up uninvited at the Seeley Lake cabin and insist on joining the brothers on a fishing trip.

Paul and Norman bury beer bottles along the riverbank to keep them cool while Neal settles onto a sandbar with only his bait can.

Paul quietly admits to Norman that he knows he should leave Montana to get his life under control, then immediately changes the subject.

Paul and Norman are joyfully welcomed by their parents in Missoula, and Paul shares a particularly tender reunion with Mrs. Maclean.

Paul slips out of the family home at bedtime to meet friends, leaving Norman alone with their father late into the night.

Paul cooks breakfast for the family after a full night of drinking before the three Maclean men set off together for the river.

Mrs. Maclean never asks Norman a single question about Paul's death and processes her grief entirely on her own.

Alongside the main story, a series of secondary events reveal the strain and tenderness running through the Maclean family and the people around them. A single childhood fight between Norman and Paul — one that accidentally injured their mother — establishes a careful, respectful distance between them that holds for the rest of their lives. When Jessie's brother Neal visits, his alcoholism creates friction that threatens Norman and Jessie's marriage even as they each try to be their sibling's keeper. The disastrous retreat to the Seeley Lake cabin, where Neal and Old Rawhide crash the brothers' peaceful escape, ends in humiliation and sunburn but eventually in a hard-won reconciliation between Norman and Jessie. The final visit to their parents brings smaller, tender moments — Paul cooking breakfast, his reunion with Mrs. Maclean — that make the coming loss more painful. After Paul's death, Mrs. Maclean's silent, solitary grief closes this pool with quiet heartbreak.

The family tensions, Neal's chaos, and quieter moments shaping the summer

Paul offers Norman casting advice on the Big Blackfoot that genuinely helps him, though Norman pretends not to hear it.

Norman lands a large fish in the Big Blackfoot canyon and then sits on the bank to watch Paul fish with masterful artistry.

Norman spends the night at Paul's apartment in Helena before the group fishing trip with Neal.

Norman takes Paul and his date home from the police station, puts them to bed, and drives to Wolf Creek hoping to find a way to help his brother.

Jessie's family writes to ask Norman and Paul to take Neal fishing, trusting that the pastor's sons can be a steadying influence.

Norman finds a dead beaver surrounded by bees and improvises a bee-imitation fly that allows him to catch several decent-sized fish.

Paul and Norman search the riverbank and find all four of their buried beer stashes completely emptied by Neal and Old Rawhide.

Paul furiously chases Old Rawhide at the edge of town and kicks her; Norman runs after her too but misses.

Florence tells Norman she does not blame him for what happened, and Dorothy assures him Neal will recover in a few days.

Norman and Jessie reconcile after the Neal disaster, each promising the other they will never lose touch again.

Norman catches Rainbow trout after Rainbow trout using a large flashy fly that Paul had always ridiculed, while Paul goes without a catch.

Paul throws rocks into Norman's fishing hole out of jealousy before moving downstream and giving Norman one of his own flies to use.

Norman stops fishing after ten trout and reflects that his finest fish were the ones caught using the fly his brother gave him.

Rev. Maclean takes comfort in learning that all the bones in Paul's right hand were broken, proof that his son fought back until the end.

Rev. Maclean tells Norman that a person can only be helped if they want help, and urges Norman to write the story of their family.

Beneath the surface of events, a series of turning points and revelations quietly shape the story's deeper meaning. On the Big Blackfoot, Paul's masterful fishing and his careful advice to Norman reveal the wordless intimacy at the heart of their bond. Norman's late-night drive home after bailing Paul out of jail forces him to confront his brother's self-destruction and his own helplessness, yet the sunrise still gives him hope. Neal's crisis puts Norman and Jessie's marriage under strain until a hard-won reconciliation makes clear that neither can save a sibling who won't accept help. On the family's last fishing day, moments of playful rivalry — Norman's envied catch, Paul's jealous rock-throwing, a shared fly — capture the warmth between the brothers at its most alive. After Paul's death, Rev. Maclean's wisdom that help must be wanted before it can be given, and that love can be complete even without understanding, offers Norman and the reader the story's deepest and most lasting consolation.