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We start with a funeral of all things. Things are not so great for John, sadly: his father seems quite sick, worn down with his support in World War II. His plan? To ride down to Mexico on a horse with his buddy, 17-year-old Lacey Rawlins. Well, they get different horses. On the way down they experience a child who calls himself Jimmy Blevins.

Just like your annoying kid brother that constantly wants to tag along, he looks 13, however, says he is 16. His name is the same as a renowned radio preacher, and he also rides a horse that is far too fancy for a child to get. Not a fantastic sign, right? Rawlins doesn't believe anything that he says and generally they get along about as well as space aliens and medieval knights.

Along the way they find Blevins is a fantastic shot and really rather not so bad at cooking stringy rabbits, but things take a downturn when he freaks out and loses his horse in a thunderstorm. When the boys find Blevins' missing horse and pistol from the town of Encantada, they make a play to throw the horse back, regardless of Rawlins' objections. They manage to escape with the horse but are chased from town, with Blevins getting separated from John Grady and Rawlins from the chaos.

John Grady and Rawlins ride south west and eventually experience a beautiful, bewitching little cattle ranch known as the Hacienda de Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción, operate by one Don Héctor Rocha y Villareal.

They find work there, and impress everyone by breaking in 16 crazy horses in under 4 times. When the woman's grand-aunt, the Dueña Alfonsa, gets the scoop on their affair, she attempts to inform John Grady to back off. Though Alfonsa isn't unsympathetic, there are principles of propriety that girls of Alejandra's station should obey.

However, John doesn't listen. Oops.

In jail they locate Blevins again. He shot the folks responsible for carrying his horse as well as some others, and maybe kicked your grandmother down the staircase, too. They're all interrogated and then sent south to some prison in Saltillo; Blevins is implemented along the way, despite the fact that capital punishment is prohibited in Mexico at this time. Turns out the principle of law wasn't such a big deal back then. Prison is tough on the boys, so as they get into constant struggles and both get knifed, with John Grady needing to kill his assailant to be able to defend himself.

At length, however, they are both purchased from prison because of Alfonsa's money, which she parted with to get the interest of Alejandra, but on the condition that John Grady never see her again. Rawlins takes a bus north back to Texas, but John remains behind to see Alejandra covertly for one last tearful farewell. From there, with nothing to lose, John goes on a desperado mission to take his horses back, encountering the captain from the Encantada prison that implemented Blevins. He takes the captain hostage, fights his way from town, and pushes the horses up north. He experiences some odd guys who take the captain off but leave him to move on his own manner, without explanation.

John reaches America, searching for the legitimate owner of Blevins' horse, but never finds anyone to maintain it. He experiences the real Jimmy Blevins, who's a self-involved radio preacher, and that knows nothing of his teenaged alter ego. After meeting Rawlins one last time and returning his horse to him, John realizes that he does not belong in this nation, along with the novel closes with him riding off into a reddish, dusty desert on his horse Redbo, leading along the unclaimed horse as well.

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