In the Texas Panhandle, Lorena is awakened by her husband, Pea Eye, tending to their sick infant daughter, Laurie. It is the morning Pea Eye is scheduled to leave and join Captain Call to track down a train robber. Lorena resents Call’s summons, delivered by telegram, feeling he commands Pea Eye as if he still owned him, taking him away from his wife and five children. Pea Eye is torn between his sense of duty to his old captain and his obligations to his family and farm. He cannot read, so Lorena must read Call’s brief, commanding telegrams to him, which always angers her.

The tension between Lorena and Call is long-standing, partly due to Call’s disapproval of her past and her relationship with his late partner, Gus McCrae. Overwhelmed with worry for his family, Pea Eye breaks down and declares he doesn’t want to go. Though she despises Call’s hold over him, Lorena tells him to be careful if he must go. When Pea Eye finally decides he will not go, Lorena is frightened by the magnitude of the change since he’s been riding by Call’s side for more than 30 years. He tells her he will ride to the rendezvous point to inform Captain Call that he is a family man now and needs to put his ranger days behind him.

At the railroad tracks, Captain Call sees Pea Eye waiting without his gear and knows instantly that he is not coming. Though internally furious at what he considers a betrayal of loyalty, Call remains outwardly calm. He shakes Pea Eye’s hand, wishes him luck with his farm, and boards the train without argument. Onboard, he explains to a concerned Brookshire that his man is married and no longer wants to chase bandits. Brookshire is alarmed, fearing Colonel Terry will hold him responsible for the mission being shorthanded.

As the train travels south, Call stews over Pea Eye’s desertion. To Call, loyalty to one’s comrades is the highest principle, and he feels Pea Eye has abandoned it for his family. Brookshire worries about finding a replacement, but Call insists on choosing his own man rather than having Colonel Terry send someone. The long, quiet ride stretches before them, and Brookshire’s attempt to start a card game is met with a flat refusal from the brooding Call.

Riding home, Pea Eye feels a deep and unexpected sadness. Though he did not want to leave his family, the finality of his break with Captain Call makes him miss his old life and the comrades of the Hat Creek outfit, many of whom are now dead. He detours to the one-room schoolhouse where his wife, Lorena, teaches. She’s surprised to see him return so soon, but his daughter Clarie is proud that he stood up to Call.

Pea Eye looks weary and admits to having a headache. Touched by his dispirited state and his clear need for her, Lorena’s irritation softens. She sends Clarie home to look after him. Clarie reluctantly agrees, though it means missing a study session with a boy she likes named Roy Benson. As they ride home together, Pea Eye is lost in his thoughts. When Clarie asks him if he approves of Roy, Pea Eye replies, “Roy? He's gangly, but then so am I” (48).

Billy Williams, an aging and nearly blind former scout, walks into Ojinaga, Mexico, after losing his horse. He carries urgent news for Maria Garza, Joey’s mother. On his way to Maria, Billy remembers the last time he visited his friend, the self-appointed Judge Roy Bean, who advised him to retire due to his blindness.

Billy finds Maria and tells her that the railroad has hired Call, the famous ranger, to hunt Joey. The news chills Maria, as Call was responsible for hanging her father, her brother, and her brother-in-law years ago. She asks Billy to identify Call for her if he comes to Ojinaga. Maria reveals that Joey has gone to Crow Town, a dangerous outlaw refuge. Billy feels obligated to go warn him, but Maria insists she will go herself.

Later, Pedro, a local vaquero, finds and returns Billy’s horse. In a drunken fury at the animal, Billy draws his pistol and empties it toward Pedro and the horse, meaning to shoot the horse as punishment, but the only casualty is a small white goat standing nearby. After he passes out, Maria sobers him up with cold water from her pump. She takes his pistol for protection, instructs him to care for her other two children—Rafael and Teresa—and rides off on her spotted mare to find Joey.

In San Antonio, Captain Call and Brookshire collect Bolivar, Call’s former cook who is now senile and self-destructive. The family caring for him can no longer manage his erratic behavior. Brookshire, who’s worried about delays, is shocked to learn that Colonel Terry expects him to accompany Call on the entire expedition to keep a meticulous account of expenses and send reports. Call objects, arguing that Brookshire is unequipped for the dangers on the journey. He tells Brookshire to wire the Colonel and feign illness, but Terry replies with an unequivocal order for him to go.

Call agrees to let Brookshire travel with them as far as Laredo. Call insists Brookshire replace his fedora with a proper felt hat and equip himself with rough clothes, boots, and leather chaps. Brookshire buys an arsenal of weapons, including a massive eight-gauge shotgun that Call finds ridiculous. They set off into the bleak, thorny country south of San Antonio. The journey is miserable for Brookshire, who is chafed by his new Western clothes, his horse, and the oppressive heat. The following morning, Bolivar grabs Brookshire’s shotgun and kills their best mule, mistaking it for an attacker. As they redistribute the packs, Brookshire notes the cost of the dead mule and the spent shells in his ledger.

Joey made his first kill at age 17. After a drunken American cowboy publicly insulted his mother, Maria, Joey shot the man dead and discovered he liked killing. To save Joey from retaliation, Maria gave him her horse and sent him away. The ranch hands of the dead cowboy later found Maria, beat her, and raped her in her home. When the ruthless Sheriff Doniphan and his deputies came looking for Joey, Doniphan only watched while the others did the work: They tied Maria to a horse and dragged her through the village and into a cactus patch—an attempt to get her to tell them Joey’s whereabouts—before jailing her in Presidio, Texas, for a month.

Upon her release, weak and covered in festering wounds, she was found by Billy Williams. Enraged by her condition, Billy confronted Doniphan’s deputy, Tom Johnson. When Johnson taunted him, Billy cut off the deputy’s ear and placed it in the man’s shirt pocket, an act that makes Johnson a laughingstock along the border. Johnson subsequently takes his humiliation out on other Mexican women but avoids arresting Maria again, fearing Billy’s vow to kill him if he harms her.

Maria, now a respected midwife, begins her 200-mile ride to Crow Town as the narrator recounts the history of the lawless town. It emerged in the sandhills around the rotting hides of a massive buffalo slaughter, which attracted thousands of crows. The town is a desolate, violent refuge for outlaws like John Wesley Hardin, the infamous lawyer gunfighter, and is haunted by a giant, corpse-eating feral hog known as the “devil pig.”

The narrator details Maria’s difficult life with men. Her first husband and Joey’s father, Carlos Garza, was killed in a jealous rage. Her second husband, the abusive Juan Castro, sold young Joey to the Apache. Her third husband was a kind but lazy man named Benito, who was brutally murdered by Joey, who severed his hands and feet with a machete after he witnessed Benito and Maria having sex, a fact Maria never knew. Her fourth husband, Roberto Sanchez, left her a few months prior. After Benito’s death, Maria had questioned Joey about it, and it escalated into an argument that ended with Maria slapping Joey twice for his insolence. Joey had disappeared for a week and came back riding a new horse. Maria mourned the fact “that her children who had no gifts—[Teresa] who could not see, [and Rafael] who could not reason—would help her with their love; while Joey, the brilliant one, the one whose mind was quick as a young deer […] gave nothing, not even little scraps of information” (139).

The narrator reveals the origin of Joey’s career as an outlaw. At 17, he became fixated on a beautiful German rifle with a telescopic sight owned by a prospector staying at their home. Joey, a natural marksman, easily outshot the man in a contest. Determined to own such a weapon, he stole gold coins from the prospector and traveled to Mexico City to purchase a gun.

There, he found a similar rifle but lacked the funds. He followed a successful card player and a sex worker into the street, smashed the man’s head with a loose cobblestone, then grabbed the money sack from the sex worker before she fled. He purchased the rifle with the stolen coins. On his way north, he committed his first train robbery near Laredo. He shot two sheepherders and two of the four railroad men with his rifle; the remaining two ran. Joey pursued them, killing one at long range and injuring the other with rifle shots to the knees before finishing him at close range with his pistol. On the train, he discovered several hundred dollars’ worth of gold and realized the potential wealth to be gained robbing trains. As a final act of casual cruelty, he left hundreds of sheep to die of heat and thirst in the locked boxcars, an atrocity that becomes part of his fearsome legend.

Riding near his ranch, legendary cattleman and Texas Ranger Charles Goodnight discusses Joey’s sheep train with Captain Call. The two men argue over the number of sheep left to die in the heat, and Goodnight asserts that almost no one can count accurately. Goodnight questions Call’s assessment of his failed Montana cattle drive, arguing that it was a bold, heroic venture, not a financial failure. He scolds Call for adopting the mindset of a banker, who judges success only by a ledger.

Goodnight reflects on his own struggles against lawyers and bankers, who he believes will ultimately dismantle the ranch he has spent his life building. He asks Call to join him on a trip to see the Yellowstone River, but Call, wanting nothing more to do with Montana, refuses. 

Call consults with Sheriff Jekyll and his deputy, Ted Plunkert. Plunkert offers intelligent insight about tracking Joey, and Call invites him to come along on their mission. Plunkert feels honored that the legendary Texas Ranger, Captain Call, would ask him to ride with him.

Ted informs his 16-year-old pregnant wife, Doobie, that he’s leaving immediately to join Captain Call’s posse. Having been married only eight months, Doobie is completely devastated and inconsolable. Plunkert is baffled by her reaction, unable to make her understand the great honor of being personally chosen by the legendary Texas Ranger. He tries to explain that one simply does not refuse such a request from a man like Captain Call.

Doobie, however, sees Call only as a stranger who is destroying her happiness. She watches from their small house as Plunkert rides away with Call and Brookshire, certain that he will be killed and never return. She runs, sobbing, to her widowed friend Susanna Slack for comfort. Doobie is convinced that their unborn son, Eddie, will now grow up without a father. That night, she dreams vividly that Plunkert has come home, only to wake to the crushing emptiness of their bed, which solidifies her despairing certainty that he is gone forever.

The narrator recounts Maria’s traumatic childhood. At 10, an elderly neighbor, Ramon, gave her a lame pony named Three Legs with the intention of marrying her once his wife died. Soon after, Maria’s father and brother were hanged by Captain Call’s Rangers for horse theft in Texas. Maria took Three Legs and wandered the river for days mourning her father, which angered Ramon. When she returned, he ambushed her in a cornfield and raped her. When Ramon’s wife died, Maria’s mother, Silvana, exhausted by poverty and loss, urged Maria to marry Ramon for the family’s survival, but Maria refused.

To protect herself from Ramon, Maria began carrying a machete. Enraged by her defiance, Ramon shot and killed Three Legs. Eventually, Ramon took Silvana as his wife instead, fearing Maria’s intensity. Maria forgave her mother, understanding her weariness, and raised her younger siblings by herself. Years later, she fell in love with a vaquero, Carlos, who became her first husband and Joey’s father.

In the Panhandle, Pea Eye is experiencing depression, neglecting his farm and brooding over his decision not to accompany Captain Call. Lorena, his wife, confronts him, frustrated that he is absent in spirit even while he is home. Their argument rehashes their long-standing conflict over his loyalty to Call. In a moment of fury, Lorena tells him to go. She quickly regrets her words and apologizes.

Pea Eye’s guilt is intensified after a conversation with Goodnight, who informs him that Joey is a far deadlier killer than he imagined, armed with a high-powered German rifle capable of killing at 500 yards. That night, both Pea Eye and Lorena are gripped by a sense of dread, convinced that if he goes, he will not return. Unable to bear the tension, Lorena tells him to leave immediately. The next morning, after a tearful farewell with his children and a brief, tight hug from Lorena, Pea Eye rides south to find his former captain.

Captain Call’s party crosses into Mexico, leaving a tearful Bolivar with a family in Nuevo Laredo. Plunkert is immediately anxious, as his harsh actions as a lawman have made him enemies in the region. As they ride deeper into the desolate country, Plunkert’s confidence wavers; he sees that Call is old and that Brookshire is incompetent, and he longs to return to his wife, Doobie.

Sensing his hesitation, Call confronts him directly, asking if he wants to quit. Put on the spot, Plunkert’s pride takes over, and he vehemently denies it, reaffirming his commitment. That night at camp, Brookshire recounts a gruesome story from the Civil War of a man being decapitated by a cannonball, leaving only a “red bone” sticking from his neck. The image horrifies Ted. They discuss Joey Garza’s tactics, and Call explains that the bandit’s fearsome reputation is what prevents armed passengers from resisting him. Call believes their best strategy is to outlast the impatient young killer.

In Crow Town, Joey lives with three prostitutes—Beulah, Marieta, and Gabriela—who cook and clean for him, though he has no sexual interest in them. The notorious killer John Wesley Hardin arrives and, in an argument over $50, shoots and kills the local blacksmith, Lordy Bailey. Before dying, the blacksmith reveals that the famous Captain Call is coming to Crow Town specifically to hunt Joey.

The news pleases Joey, who sees it as a measure of his success. Hardin, intrigued, tries to engage Joey in conversation, advising him that if he wants to avoid capture, he shouldn’t go near Judge Bean, who will surely hang him. Joey tells Hardin that perhaps he will hang Judge Bean instead. Hardin says if Joey wants to avoid capture, he must kill Famous Shoes, a legendary Kickapoo tracker who can find anyone—he never fails to find his target. Joey, unimpressed by the scabby, volatile killer, assures him that, like Famous Shoes, Joey does not miss his targets either.

Famous Shoes is on a long spiritual walk to the Red River, the land of his ancestors. On his return journey south, he recognizes the distinctive horse track of his old acquaintance, Pea Eye, who favors his left stirrup, causing the track to go deeper on the left side, particularly on the rear hoof. Puzzled why the family man would be riding south alone, Famous Shoes follows him. He hopes Pea Eye’s wife, Lorena, a schoolteacher, might teach him to read.

He easily catches up with Pea Eye, surprising him at his campfire before dawn. Famous Shoes asks about reading lessons, and Pea Eye explains he is on his way to find Captain Call. He invites the tracker to join him, knowing his skills will be invaluable. Famous Shoes agrees on the condition that reading lessons from Lorena will serve as his payment. He reveals that he knows of Joey as the son of Maria, a woman from Ojinaga. The two men, one on horseback and one on foot, set off together toward the border.

Deep in Mexico, Captain Call, Brookshire, and Plunkert ride into Chihuahua City. Brookshire collects six telegrams and returns looking ill. He has learned that his wife, Katie, has died of pneumonia. Devastated, he insists they press on with their duty. Call reads the other messages. Colonel Terry demands reports. A new gang, led by a brutal killer known as Mox Mox—the manburner—has been robbing trains in New Mexico, killing passengers and burning their bodies. Goodnight has also sent a wire, identifying Mox Mox as a killer long thought dead and confirming that Pea Eye is on his way, guided by the tracker Famous Shoes.

Call decides to continue hunting Joey and plans to head for Presidio, Texas, where he believes they will rendezvous with Pea Eye. After buying supplies, including extra rifles and a pair of field glasses, they leave the city at dusk. They travel through the night under a full moon, heading back toward Texas. Brookshire, numb with grief, feels the desolate landscape mirror his internal state. He is no longer afraid of “blowing away” and realizes that, as a manhunter, he must now learn to use the moon for light.