In East Texas ranching country, Captain Wade and Hannah Hunnicutt, they of the most powerful family in the community, have long been husband and wife in name only. Hannah has only agreed to stay in this loveless marriage on the condition that she have sole control in raising their only offspring, Theron Hunnicutt. In part a result of their marriage, Wade has become a chronic adulterer, the worst kept secret in the community, Theron probably the only person who doesn't know. However like most of the community, he also is unaware of his parents' dysfunctional marriage. Now seventeen, Theron is well mannered and cultured, but sensitive and naive to the ways of the world, well known to be tied to his mother's apron strings. Wade decides to break his promise to Hannah in wanting Theron to be a man's man by teaching him how to shoot and hunt under the guidance of Wade's hired hand, Rafe Copley, a loner only a few years older than Theron himself. While Theron does take to those specific aspects in his transition to becoming a man, he has more difficulty in the issue of relations between a man and woman as he falls in love with Libby Halstead. As Theron becomes closer to his father, he will find that his life will be affected by his parents' dysfunction and the fact of being the son of Wade Hunnicutt regardless of who he himself is as a person. What happens to him will in turn affect Rafe's life.—Huggo