- Some guy stands in a house observing the light of a candle. He checks out the corpse of some other guy he knew, decked out in funeral attire and with his hair slicked up in a way it never was during the time he was alive. That's all the information we have at this point.
- We should warn you that McCarthy's narrator has a habit of referring to people as just "he" or "she" for extended periods of time, so it isn't always clear at first who is being talked about. He also has a tendency to leave out important information or events and skip ahead suddenly, particularly in the first several pages. That info will be a helpful thing to keep in mind as you read.
- The guy expresses appreciation for the candle being lit to a woman baking sweetrolls, but apparently the candle was lit by another woman, "la señora." You know who we're talking about, right? Right?
- The funeral happens, and barely anybody can hear the preacher over the howling wind. Sounds like great fun.
- The guy takes a ride out west from the house. The narrator imagines the Comanche Indians who rode the same road long ago, the violence of that time, and how they are a people lost to history.
- He finds a bleached horse skull and realizes that "what he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them" (21). He rides back but feels the pull of the Comanche warriors across the southern border to Mexico.
- The narrator gives a bit of the house's history. Built in 1872, the guy's grandfather is the only one to die in it 77 years later. (So that means the current year is around 1949.) We learn that most of the other relatives died violently, and none of the grandfather's seven other brothers lived past age 25.
- The grandfather had a daughter, who became the main guy's mother. We finally learn that the guy—or "boy," as the narrator now calls him—is named John Grady Cole. The narrator calls him "John Grady"; Grady is the original family name of his grandfather.
- John meets his father in a café. John's dad falls into coughing when he laughs at a joke. Sounds like he might be ill.
- They talk about the boy's mother, who has gone to San Antonio. The boy's father says she can go where she wants. We're getting the distinct impression that these two are splitsville.
- John's worried about his dad. His father lights up multiple cigarettes over the course of the conversation, and jokes that John can complain about his smoking if he wants. They agree to ride some horses (theme alert!) on Saturday.
- The narration jumps to John and a boy the narrator calls Rawlins unsaddling horses and camping out under the stars, fifteen miles from town.
- They talk about a girl—apparently John was turned down by a girl in favor of an older boy who had a car. Which, you know, happens.
- Rawlins says he wouldn't let the girl get the best of him. John says girls aren't worth it. Rawlins says they are. Ah, the age-old debate.
- John reveals that he isn't planning on meeting his father on Saturday.
- John returns home and enters his grandfather's office. A woman comes down and asks what he's doing. He says he's just sitting. She stands there for a while and then leaves. John waits until she's in her room before leaving.
- Time shifts forward and John and his father sit drinking coffee, watching cars. John's father spikes his own coffee with whiskey. They look at the oilfield scouts' cars and talk about making money in poker and in oil fields. We learn that John's father last spoke to John's mother in 1942 in California and that she's in a play over there.
- John nearly cries when the subject of his grandfather comes up. We learn that he was the only one who didn't give up on John's father, when the others were about to give his clothes away or hold a funeral.
- John's grandfather said that they wouldn't have a funeral unless there was something to bury, even if it was just his dog tags, implying that John's father was away in a war.
- John's father gives him a new saddle as a present. When he leaves, John takes the saddle down the street at night, and hitches a ride in a stranger's car. (Don't try this yourself, Shmoopers.)
- We jump forward briefly to John riding his horse, Redbo, along the plains.
- John eats dinner with Luisa and Arturo, two workers at his ranch house, while "she" is away. The narrator briefly digresses about John hitching rides into town to walk the streets and look at his father's silhouette in his hotel room.
- When John asks la señora why she didn't lease him the ranch, she says the place barely paid expenses for the last 20 years, and besides, John is sixteen. La señora tells him he's being ridiculous. Kid's gotta go to school.
- After another abrupt time skip, John goes to an office to see a man named Mr. Franklin. Franklin says he can't advise John because of a conflict of interest, and that the property is la señora's and she can do what she wants with it.
- When John asks about his father, since "they aint divorced" as he says, Franklin corrects him—actually, they are officially divorced. (This is also when we figure out that "la señora" is John's mom.) That makes John's mother sole owner of the ranch.
- Franklin talks about John's mother's distaste for the ranch, and we get the impression she's going to sell it.
- Franklin's frustrated with John's father, who signed away all his opportunities to hold onto anything after the divorce, and who has stopped going to the doctor. None of this looks good for John.
- After Christmas, the ranch's workers and John cope with the impending loss of the house. Luisa's particularly sad, because no one has even told her mother yet, who had been working on the ranch since before the turn of the century. Luisa's mother takes the news by simply nodding and turning away. We guess she's stoic.
- John packs an overnight bag and hitches rides to San Antonio, where his mother lives. He stays at the YMCA (sing the chorus now) and watches his mother act in a show at the theater. People at the theater give him weird looks. John thought the play would tell him something about the world, but it doesn't. Guess it wasn't Shakespeare.
- He lingers in the theater before taking off. He is good at lingering. The next morning he goes to the Menger Hotel, where he catches a glimpse of his mother on the arm of another man. Awkward.
- When he asks the clerk if there is a Mrs. Cole registered there, the answer is no. Double awkward.
- The narration skips to John and his father riding together for the last time. The narrator notes the frailness of John's father, and how John is such a good rider that if horses didn't exist, he would've known something was missing in order for him to be right with the world.
- John and his father come to a café, where they talk about why his parents' marriage didn't work out and how his mother helped his father through the war. His father thought the fact that they both liked horses was enough, but they had little else in common as a couple.
- John's father mentions that they're like the Comanches two hundred years ago: things aren't safe anymore, and who knows what's going to show up come daylight?
- We jump to Rawlins and John Grady camping out under the stars in a way that is definitely not romantic at all. In fact, it sounds kind of creepy and terrible.
- Someone calls out, and John says it's probably someone looking for Rawlins. Rawlins agrees, asking John, "You told your old man?" (Told him what, you ask? Sorry, you must have forgot that you're in a Cormac McCarthy novel.) John says no.
- Over the course of the conversation it becomes clear that they're talking about leaving Texas on their own ahead of John's ranch being closed down. Rawlins eventually heads back to the person calling for him.
- John runs into Mary Catherine, the girl he'd tried to date who left him for an older boy, and they talk one last time.
- Mary Catherine says she wishes they could be friends, but John mentions he's leaving town. They shake hands awkwardly and it's totally confusing for poor John, who's never shaken hands with a woman before.
- Rawlins and John meet up and take off from town in the night on their horses.
- They take a break from riding later the next day and talk about what they brought to shoot with and how easy it was to slip away from their families.
- The boys stop at a café and get food at a store for their horses. When asked by the store owner, they mention they're headed to Mexico. As an explanation, they lie and say they robbed a bank, which the owner doesn't believe.
- They ask the owner, whom the narrator refers to as "Mexican," if he knows the country to the south. The owner says he's never been to Mexico in his life.
- Back on the road, they check their maps. Everything south of the Rio Grande is shown blank or desolate. (This ain't spring break territory, folks.)
- Rawlins shoots and guts a rabbit, which they eat for dinner. Rawlins mentions that he could get used to this life.
- They get more supplies at a grocery store in another town. The store patrons react to them with more curiosity now, and the two boys remark to each other that they might look a little rough at this point on their journey.
- Rawlins wonders about home and if John has ever felt "ill at ease," as if "you're someplace you aint supposed to be," but didn't know why.
- After a while, John notices that they're being followed. Not good.
- They lie in wait, and eventually a kid comes along riding a magnificent horse, wearing a broad-brimmed hat.
- John and Rawlins wait for him to pass and them come up behind the kid, who looks about 13 years old. Rawlins asks him if he's hunting them. The kid denies that he's following them, and that he's going to Langtry.
- The kid sidesteps questions about where he got the horse and lies about his age, saying he's sixteen, much like that time you tried to get into that bar (sorry, it's all over the Internet).
- Rawlins and John pretend that they're going to kill him and sell his horse, but the kid realizes that they're just joking around, and says that they've never shot anybody. When asked if people are hunting him over the horse, the kid doesn't answer.
- They part ways after Rawlins says that riding with him will get them thrown in jail as the beautiful horse is unlikely to be the kid's own as he claims.
- Later they come to a creek and realize the kid is still following them. Rawlins mentions that the kid isn't as much of a novice as he looks. The kid stops at the creek and then turns to look at them where they l in wait, mentioning he knew they didn't cross because of the deer feeding on the other side.
- Rawlins asks what they're going to do with him. That's when the kid mentions no one would be hunting him in Mexico, though he still insists he hasn't done anything.
- When asked, the kid says his name is Jimmy Blevins. Rawlins calls him a liar, since that's the name of someone on the radio. When Rawlins asks why they should want the kid with them, the kid simply says "Cause I'm an American."
- The three boys cross the river wearing only their hats, with their gear stashed together so it doesn't get wet. They arrive in Mexico on the other side.
- The next morning after they make camp, they formally introduce themselves: John Grady Cole, Lacey Rawlins, and Jimmy Blevins. Nice to meet yous, etc.
- Blevins mentions he can look out for himself, and shows the others his 32-20 Colt pistol. When Rawlins challenges his shooting ability, they decide to test it by tossing up Rawlins' pocketbook in the air, which Blevins puts a hole clean through. As they ride, Rawlins realized Blevins could've shot them with the pistol back when they first met. Yikes.
- They stop at a store to get some cider, where John Grady admires how Blevins put a hole nearly dead center in Rawlins' pocketbook.
- Looking out at the mud huts of the small village they're in, they realize there aren't any cars or electricity here. Shocker.
- As they ride past dead cattle and desolation and more mud huts, John Grady asks Rawlins how this country suits him ("country" as in land, not the nation of Mexico), and Rawlins merely spits in response. High praise, we guess.
- They are put up for the night in a friendly stranger's estate, who asks them about America, which is only 30 miles to the north.
- Blevins falls over backward during dinner. Only the man at the house offers to help him up. It's all as awkward as it sounds.
- His daughters laugh at Blevins, but his wife is not allowed to "for the impropriety of it." Her eyes shine a little with mirth, however.
- Blevins suddenly wants to leave, as he can't stand being laughed at, even by little girls. So he ends up spending the night outside.
- They ask the old man at the house about work, and he mentions big ranches about 300 kilometers to the south. Sounds promising.
- John Grady and Rawlins encounter Blevins when they head off the next morning, heading south through desolate and empty country.
- They stop for lunch, and John Grady takes a dip in nearby water. The horses watch him. Blevins admires for John's riding ability, and then Rawlins and Blevins get into an argument over how you can know someone is the best at something. These two.
- They ride through more empty country. Rawlins remarks on the sheer size of it; John Grady says that's what he's here for.
- That night, they hear something they've never heard before: howling wolves. John Grady lies awake contemplating "the wildness about him, the wildness within" (863).
- They take off the next morning as the sun rises. Rawlins asks if there will be a day when the sun doesn't rise, and John says heck yes: judgment day.
- When Rawlins asks John Grady if he believes in all that, John says he's unsure, and returns the question. Rawlins is unsure, too. Blevins calls Rawlins an infidel, and Rawlins snaps back at him again. Good grief.
- The boys encounter a group of zacateros (men who work cutting or selling hay) looking for someone.
- They look rough, and their clothes are a patchwork, marbled with grease and sweat. The narrator says, "they looked as wild and strange as the country they were in" (888).
- The zacateros recognize that the boys are from Texas. John Grady tries to read their eyes for what they're thinking, but he can tell nothing from them—they look out at the terrain as if it's a problem they're trying to figure out. They move on after their leader finishes his cigarette.
- Blevins shoots a jackrabbit and they cook it for dinner. Yum? We learn that Blevins' dad died in the war, he has an abusive stepfather, and he has run away multiple times; he is running away to Mexico in order to not be found.
- When Blevins asks why Rawlins ran away, Rawlins says he's seventeen and can do what he wants.
- The boys run into a caravan the next day and don't have small enough change to buy water, so they buy sotol, a kind of distilled spirit, instead. They get quite drunk during the course of the day, not in a spring-break fashion, more like a wandering-through-a-desolate-wasteland fashion.
- In the evening, Rawlins reaches back to hand Blevins the sotol, but notices that Blevins is no longer on his horse. They go back and find Blevins plastered in the middle of the road. Whoops.
- A lightning storm is on the horizon, which freaks Blevins out. Blevins claims that multiple people in his family have been struck by lightning, telling a series of stories that Rawlins calls lies.
- Blevins says he'll outride the thunderstorm, which John Grady says is ridiculous.
- Still, the kid rides ahead quickly at the first sign of thunder. The others eventually catch up to the horse and find Blevins nearby, naked except for a pair of outsized undershorts. John leaves him be for the night, as he is unwilling to move. And that, ladies and gents, is your comic relief for the novel.
- They find Blevins' horse tied to a tree. Later in the night, they hear the sound of a horse running in the rain. Rawlins asks John Grady if he knows "what that was" (which is not entirely clear at this point). When John says yes, Rawlins offers him a drink.
- The other boys have to pull over and vomit, a sound that the horses have never heard before.
- They ride on the next morning, hung over, and Blevins with only one boot (which he quickly pitches away). John Grady makes clear to Blevins the extent to which he's worn out Rawlins, and offers a ride on his horse.
- They make it to a camp of laborers, from whom they get dinner. Blevins wants them to ask about his horse; at this point it's clear that Blevins' horse got away during the previous stormy night.
- Rawlins says Blevins will never get the horse back and should just sell his pistol for a bus ticket home. Ah, but Blevins says the pistol was left with the horse.
- John strikes up a conversation in Spanish with one of the laborers, who asks questions about Blevins, how he knows him, and who Blevins' parents might be.
- After finding out the tenuous nature of their relationship, the laborer offers to buy Blevins.
- Say what? The laborers don't look evil to John, but that's little comfort. John gets the others and they leave, because they're so not into child slavery.
- As they ride on, Rawlins says that something bad is going to happen. Blevins seems to be a magnet for trouble.
- They reach the village of Encantada, where they see Blevins' pistol in the back pocket of a man working on a car. John Grady and Rawlins leave Blevins behind to scout out the town. They spot Blevins' horse in an abandoned mud house, and ride on casually.
- When they return for Blevins, he's gone.
- Rawlins mentions that every dumb thing he ever did in his life was caused by a decision made before it, and they now had their last chance to prevent that from happening. Rawlins wants to leave, but John Grady can't just leave him behind.
- The two boys nap until dark. When they wake, Blevins is back. He and Rawlins get into another argument when Rawlins says that if it weren't for John, he'd have left Blevins back when they first met.
- In the end they plan to steal the horse back, which they realize could get them in a lot of trouble since they have no proof of Blevins' ownership of the horse.
- They sneak to the abandoned mud hut at night, but the horse isn't there anymore.
- Against the others' objections, Blevins goes into the house. When they hear dogs, and a racket starts to break out across the lot, John Grady and Rawlins take off.
- At the same time, Blevins bursts through a fence on his big bay horse, closely followed by a pack of dogs and three pistol shots, and he charges ahead.
- The other two boys catch up with Blevins. He says that since they can't keep up with him, he'll cut a trail of dust down the main road, while John Grady and Rawlins slip away.
- On the run, John Grady and Rawlins later spot some riders in the distance, and they contemplate whether they'll have to shoot their way back to Texas.
- Eventually the riders quit their trail, and they make camp for the night. Rawlins says he'll kill Blevins himself if he sees him again, but later expresses grudging admiration over the way he wouldn't stand for someone stealing his horse.
- Rawlins kills a deer the next day, and at camp, Rawlins asks if John Grady has thought about dying and whether there's a heaven.
- They both think so, but Rawlins is unsure whether you have to believe in hell as well.
- When John asks if Rawlins is getting religion, Rawlins wonders if he wouldn't be better off if he did.
- Rawlins asks John if he thinks God watches over people, and both agree again.
- Then Rawlins says that with the way the world is, someone could sneeze in Arkansas and there could be wars and ruin all over the place, and people couldn't make it a day without someone watching over.
- They encounter a group of cowboys ("vaqueros"), strike up a conversation, and follow them. As they go along, a girl rides past on a black Arabian saddle horse; she tips her hat to the vaqueros, and they do the same.
- John Grady stares off in her direction long after she's out of sight, ignoring Rawlins' question about whether he saw "that little darlin" (1432).
- They reach the ranch and meet the manager. The cowboys vouch for the boys' skill, and they are hired for work on the ranch.
- John Grady and Rawlins eat dinner with the cowboys, who ask them about America, horses, and cattle, and nothing about the boys themselves.
- The country to the north is merely a rumor for them, "a thing for which there seemed no accounting" (1436), much like how old moldy cheese can taste good.
- As they go to sleep, Rawlins and Grady agree that this is a good group. They don't know much about Rocha, the head of the ranch, and assume the girl they saw was his daughter.
- Before falling asleep, John Grady responds to one of Rawlins' queries by saying he'd like to stay at the ranch about a hundred years.