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==Plot==
{{Long plot|date=February 2022}}
In 1925 [[Montana]], wealthy ranch-owning brothers Phil and George Burbank meet widow and inn owner Rose Gordon during a cattle drive. The kind-hearted George is quickly taken with Rose, while the volatile Phil, much influenced by his late mentor Bronco Henry, mocks Rose's son Peter for his [[lisp]] and effeminate manner. Phil uses one of the paper roses on the table to light his cigarette, knowing full well that Peter made them, showing his contempt for the boy. Rose sees this and removes the rest of the flowers from the table. George tells Phil that how he treated Rose's son made her cry and Phil dismisses his complaint.
 
Upon seeing his brother spending increasingly more time with Rose, Phil writes to his mother to tell her of the relationship, thinking that she may be able to stop it. Phil tells George about the letter that he wrote and says that George knows how the ''Old Lady'' (their mother) would feel about his relationship with Rose. Rose moves into the Burbank ranch house and is able to use George's money to send Peter to college to study medicine and surgery. Phil takes an immediate dislike to Rose, believing that she married George for his money. Phil's rough ways and taunting manner unnerve her. One evening, George organizes a dinner party with his parents and the governor; George intends to introduce his guests to Rose so that they can meet Rose and hear her play their new piano, an instrument which Rose says that she can barely play. Rose begins to practiceDuring the pianoparty, butRose, Phil mocks her strugglesrattled by playing the same tune on his banjo. We learn from the governor that Phil's graduatedearlier Phibelittling Betaof Kappaher from Yale. Roseskills, is unable to play more than a few notes of the "[[Radetzky March]]" and is further humiliated when Phil belittlesmocks her about her practicing. She begins drinking alcohol, something she was previously opposed to doing.
 
By the time that Peter comes to stay at the ranch for the summer break, Rose has become an alcoholic. Phil and his men taunt Peter, and he sequesters himself in his room, dissecting animals and studying diseases. In a secluded clearing, Phil masturbates with Bronco Henry's scarf. Peter enters the clearing and finds a stash of magazines with Bronco Henry's name on them depicting nude men. He observes Phil bathing in a pond with the handkerchief around his neck; Phil notices him and chases him off.
 
To torment Rose further, Phil begins to show decency to Peter, offering to plait him a [[lasso]] from [[rawhide (material)|rawhide]] and teach him how to ride a horse. Peter heads out on his own one day and finds a dead cow, presumably dead from anwhich [[anthrax]] infection. He then puts on gloves andhe cuts off pieces of the cow'sits hide. While working on a fencing job, Peter and Phil corner a rabbit and discover that the rabbit has injured its leg. Phil tells Peter he needs to kill the creature. Peter, appearing to merely stroke the rabbit, breaks its neck; Phil responds with a look of bewilderment. Following this, Peter notices that Phil has also injuredinjures his hand andclearing has an openthe woundwood. Afterward, Peter tells Phil about finding the body of his alcoholic father, who had hanged himself, and cutting the corpse down by himself.
Rose's alcoholism worsens after she starts seeing how much time her son spends with the vicious Phil. Upon learning about Phil's policy of burning the hides that he does not need for himself, Rose defiantly gives the hides to local [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] traders who thank her with a pair of gloves. She then collapses from her rapid alcohol consumption, and George tends to her, throwing out a bottle of [[American whiskey|Bourbon]] that he had found in the sheets.
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Phil is despondent over not having any of the hides needed to finish Peter's lasso, and he attempts to lash out at Rose before being stopped by his brother George. Peter calms Phil down by offering him the hide that he had cut from the dead cattle, but Peter fails to mention that the animal was already deceased when Peter encountered it. Phil is touched by Peter's gesture and promises him that they'll have a much better relationship moving forward. The pair spend the night in the barn finishing the rope, Phil's open wound and the hide mixing together in the solution used to soften the hide.
 
Phil tells Peter how Bronco Henry saved his life by lying body-to-body with him in a [[Cowboy bedroll|bedroll]] during freezing weather. Phil then chuckles and doesn't answer when Peter asks if they were naked. The two then share a cigarette in a very intimate exchange. When Phil does not show up for breakfast the following day, George finds him sickened in bed, his wound now severely infected. A delirious Phil looks for Peter to give him the finished lasso, but George takes Phil away to the doctor before Phil can hand the lasso over. George is later seen picking out a coffin for his brother while his body is prepared for burial.
 
At the funeral, the doctor tells George that Phil most likely died from anthrax; this puzzles George, as Phil was always careful to avoid diseased cattle. Peter, who skipped Phil's funeral, opens a [[Book of Common Prayer]] to a passage on burial rites and then reads [[Psalm 22]]:20: "Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog." Later he puts his finished lasso under his bed with gloved hands. As Peter walks down the hall, he stops at a window and watches George and a now-sober Rose return home and embrace. He turns away and smiles.
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