Wounded

John Hunt is a Black horse trainer living on a ranch in Wyoming with his 79-year-old Uncle Gus, a former prisoner who served 11 years in an Arizona state prison for killing a white man who was raping Gus's wife. Gus came to live with John after John's wife, Susie, died six years earlier when she attempted to ride an unbroken horse and was thrown. John blames himself, believing his emotional distance drove Susie to attempt the ride to prove her bravery.

John's ranch hand, Wallace Castlebury, is a well-meaning but inept worker who was visibly surprised to discover his employer is Black. After Wallace breaks a mower blade, John sends him home early. Before dawn the next morning, a white Ford dually (a dual-rear-wheel pickup truck) arrives at the ranch; a young man asks for Wallace, then leaves without a message. Wallace fails to show up for work.

In town, John learns that a college student has been found dead at the mouth of a nearby canyon, strung up with his throat slit. Sheriff Bucky Edmonds informs John that Wallace has been arrested for the murder and has named John as his only contact. John reluctantly visits Wallace, who insists he did not kill the boy. John agrees to call Wallace's brother Gary Castlebury in Fort Collins, but Gary responds with hostility and hangs up.

John's friend Duncan Camp, a cattle detective, brings him a horse to train: Felony, a spook-prone palomino that reacts to its rider's fearful thoughts. While working Felony, John cycles through anxious memories to desensitize the horse and himself. Meanwhile, Morgan Reese, a neighboring rancher, reports that the victim, Jerry Tuttle, was gay and that Wallace allegedly killed him after Jerry made a pass at him. On a second jail visit, Wallace reveals he liked the victim, implying a romantic connection, and asks why he would have killed someone he cared about.

On a ride in the high country, Morgan confronts John about her feelings, asking if she is wasting her time. John admits his attraction but confesses his guilt over Susie. When they return, John kisses her. Their relationship deepens quickly. John shows Morgan a cave on public Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land south of his ranch. In the darkness, they make love and confess their love for each other.

While riding in the Red Desert, John discovers a coyote burned alive, its den torched with gasoline. He finds dually tire tracks nearby and rescues two barely alive pups. One, a female with a severely burned foreleg, survives with Gus's devoted care; the other dies. John later amputates the dead leg and, at Gus's insistence, buries it with a few quiet words.

Howard Thayer, John's only remaining college friend, asks John to check on his 20-year-old son David Thayer, who is visiting the area with his boyfriend, Robert. Howard mentions that he and his wife Sylvia have divorced. At lunch, Robert probes John about race in the rural West. John pushes back, noting that the only place anyone ever called him a racial slur to his face was in Cambridge, Massachusetts. John invites them to dinner and offers to attend the upcoming memorial rally for Jerry Tuttle.

Before the rally, Wallace hangs himself in his cell. Bucky confides that the case has felt wrong from the start. John calls Gary again; now a born-again Christian, Gary weeps and references Wallace's "homosexualness," confirming the implication of Wallace's earlier confession. At the rally, two men, one rangy and one stout, shove Robert and shout an anti-gay slur. Deputy Hanks intervenes. Snow disperses the crowd, and John brings David and Robert to his ranch. Duncan visits and, when Robert asks if they make him uncomfortable, admits he does not approve of homosexuality but cannot say why. He warns that some people in the area might kill them.

Hate crimes escalate. Daniel White Buffalo, a rancher and member of the Arapaho Nation, calls John to investigate a cow shot through the head on reservation land. Weeks later, a second cow is killed and eviscerated, with the words "Red Nigger" written in the animal's blood on the snow. Outside the feed store, John encounters the rangy man from the rally, who calls him a racial slur and shoves him. John punches the man in the face, breaking his nose.

On Thanksgiving, Morgan's mother Emily dies of a heart attack. On Christmas Eve, John proposes to Morgan; she accepts. David calls on Christmas Day, heartbroken after Robert cheated on him, and asks to come work at the ranch. John agrees. Meanwhile, Gus's energy declines. When John presses him, Gus reveals he has pancreatic cancer and is dying.

Howard arrives for New Year's with Pamela, a paralegal from his firm who is younger than David, and announces they are getting married. David, drinking heavily, erupts, accusing his father of refusing to understand his sexuality. At midnight, David storms into the sub-zero night in sneakers and no jacket. John saddles the Appaloosa and rides into the dark, finding David hypothermic four miles from the house.

John carries David to the nearby cave and warms him by pressing his body against David's after stripping their wet clothes. In his delirium, David kisses John. John does not pull away, focused on keeping the young man alive. At dawn, he rides back to the ranch with David. A doctor confirms David will recover. John confronts Howard, who leaves with Pamela the next day. The friendship is severed.

David recovers but grows distant. Morgan senses something happened, and John tells her about the kiss. On a drive to town, David admits he is attracted to John. John tells him the attraction cannot change their friendship, and David agrees to stay.

Weeks later, David drives into town for Gus's prescription and does not return. John's Jeep is found abandoned 20 miles into the Red Desert. A Highway Patrol investigator calls off the search. John connects David's disappearance to the dually tracks from the torched coyote den and the slaughtered cattle, suspecting the two men from the rally. Howard and Sylvia fly to Denver and drive to the ranch.

John and Gus drive to the reservation, where Elvis Two Horses, an Arapaho community member, tells them the men are squatting in an old cabin in Mouse Canyon. Near the canyon entrance, they find a vehicle hidden under a tarp with dually tracks on the road beyond it. John approaches the cabin on foot with his rifle, leaving Gus with instructions to go for the sheriff if John does not return within an hour. He forces three men to sit at a table beneath a Nazi flag: the two from the rally and a red-bearded stranger. John duct-tapes two of them to chairs. The wiry man confirms they abducted and beat David. Gus enters with a .45 pistol and shoots the red-bearded man dead. He demands to know where David is, and the wiry man reveals David is in a blasted-out hole up the canyon.

John finds David beaten so severely his mouth is pulp and his arm broken at a grotesque angle. David is breathing but unconscious. Gus instructs John to take David to the hospital and to lie about where he found him. At the emergency room, the doctor tells John, Howard, Sylvia, and Morgan that David has massive internal injuries and severe brain trauma. David is dead.

Back at the ranch, John tells Morgan the truth: Gus killed a man and stayed behind with the bound survivors. Before John can act, Elvis Two Horses's truck arrives. Gus climbs out, unsteady. Elvis tells John he is sorry about the boy, then says, "This is the frontier, cowboy. Everyplace is the frontier. Take care of your uncle" (207). John helps Gus inside. What happened to the two surviving men is left unspoken.