A sky-blue car that has been present in pivotal life moments for several people becomes a source of contention and then alliance between Marcus, who is fleeing the consequences of his unrealized ambitions, and Maria, who would make amends in her hometown.

"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...