Cities of the Plain is the final novel of the Border Trilogy. In the early 1950s, John Grady Cole is working as a ranch hand in New Mexico, close to the border, and Billy Parham is an older cowboy who becomes his friend. John Grady falls in love with a young woman from a brothel in Juarez, and his determination to rescue her leads toward danger. The book brings together the central characters of the earlier novels and reflects on loyalty, the passing of the old cowboy life, and the weight of fate.
Quotes
The martyr who longs for the flames can be no right candidate for them.
Our waking life's desire to shape the world to our convenience invites all manner of paradox and difficulty.