Texas. Even as it enters a new century, it is still a clean, lean, and hungry country—its passions quickly felt and quickly spent, its hopes as clear and forthright as the morning sun. Bound inextricably to the land, its future is forged by young men and women like Gideon Fry, Johnny McCloud, and Molly Taylor. Gideon, a circumspect young man, is torn between his need to find his own way and the more formidable challenge of following in his rancher father's footsteps. His best friend Johnny takes each day as it comes, his restless spirit finding its only solace in the arms of a woman, a barroom brawl, or on the back of a good horse traversing an open range. And binding them all together is Molly, the elusive and passionate woman they both love, who gives herself to both, commits herself to neither, and bears each of them a child. Rugged, bold, and volatile, the three of them struggle with history even as they make it. And they, along with the country that bred them, come of age together in this tender and intimate novel of the heart.