No Country for Old Men
Chapters - Cormac McCarthy
Chapter 1: I
Sheriff Bell reflects on sending a man to the gas chamber and on the nature of evil he senses coming. He recalls the killer's confession that he had always planned to murder someone and would do it again. Bell senses a new kind of darkness approaching, something beyond anything he has encountered before.
In the Terrell County sheriff's office, a deputy arrests Anton Chigurh, who is carrying a strange pneumatic device. When the deputy turns away, Chigurh strangles him with his own handcuffs and escapes in the patrol car. He pulls over a motorist on the highway and kills him with the captive bolt stungun, then takes the man's car.
Llewelyn Moss, while hunting antelope in the West Texas desert, stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong - shot-up trucks, dead bodies, heroin, and a dying Mexican. He follows a blood trail and finds a dead man with a leather case containing over two million dollars in cash. He takes the money and returns to his trailer at the Desert Aire, where his wife Carla Jean is waiting. Later that night, unable to sleep, Moss returns to the scene with water for the dying man, only to be spotted and pursued by men in a truck. He is shot at, escapes across the desert, and makes it home wounded, knowing he must send Carla Jean away immediately.
POV: Ed Tom Bell, Anton Chigurh, Llewelyn Moss·On page: Carla Jean Moss, Bill Wyrick
Chapter 2: II
Bell reflects on the increasing dangers of law enforcement, recounting a harrowing incident where he was ambushed by men in a pickup truck. He discusses the violence appearing in the news and his wife's refusal to read the papers any longer.
Bell and his deputy Wendell investigate the body of a man named Wyrick found in a trunk, killed with a mysterious round that left no bullet. Bell arranges for his deputy Torbert to handle the forensics. At the Sonora courthouse, Sheriff Lamar is devastated - his young deputy has been killed, strangled by Chigurh during his escape.
Moss arrives home wounded and tells Carla Jean to pack immediately. He orders her onto a morning bus to her mother's in Odessa, refusing to explain what has happened. Meanwhile, Chigurh crosses into the desert to investigate the drug deal scene with two associates. He examines Moss's abandoned truck, studies the carnage, then coldly executes both of his companions and drives away alone.
Chigurh stops at a filling station in Sheffield, where he terrorises the elderly proprietor with a coin toss, forcing the man to call heads or tails for his life. The man calls heads and wins. Chigurh leaves the coin and departs into the night.
POV: Ed Tom Bell, Anton Chigurh, Llewelyn Moss·On page: Carla Jean Moss, Wendell, Torbert, Lamar·Mentioned: Bill Wyrick
Chapter 3: III
Bell reflects on law enforcement and technology, noting that the tools available to police also become available to criminals. He recalls attending an execution and the chaplain's story of a condemned man saving his dessert for when he would return.
Moss and Carla Jean part at the bus station in Fort Stockton, where she begs him not to hurt anyone. Bell and Wendell investigate a burning car connected to the case, then ride on horseback into the desert to survey the drug massacre scene. They find Moss's abandoned truck, identify him, and discover the executed bodies of Chigurh's two associates alongside the original carnage. They find another body with no gun and no money - the last man standing had walked away with the cash.
Chigurh breaks into Moss's trailer at the Desert Aire, searches the empty rooms, and steals mail from the floor including the phone bill. He traces the calls to Del Rio and Odessa, phoning Carla Jean's mother. He then visits Moss's workplace but finds him gone. Moss arrives in Del Rio, checks into the cheap Trail Motel, and hides the money inside an air duct. That night he crosses into Ciudad Acuna, eats dinner, and returns to discover his motel room may have been entered. He moves to a Ramada Inn, and in the morning buys a shotgun, which he saws down to a pistol-grip weapon less than two feet long.
POV: Ed Tom Bell, Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh·On page: Carla Jean Moss, Wendell
Chapter 4: IV
Bell reflects on his family history and his marriage, calling his wife Loretta a better person than anyone he knows. He recalls the day he first saw her crossing the street.
Bell investigates the Desert Aire trailer, finding the shot-out lock cylinder from Chigurh's captive bolt device. The DEA agent McIntyre arrives by helicopter and they survey the drug massacre together, cataloguing weapons and shell casings. Chigurh picks up the transponder signal from the money and drives toward Del Rio. Moss returns to the Trail Motel and rents a second room, using improvised tools to retrieve the money case from the air duct. But Chigurh also arrives, tracking the signal. He forces his way into a room and kills two Mexican gunmen who were there, then discovers the money has been taken from the air duct. Meanwhile, Bell reads Torbert's forensics report and realises the deputy was killed with a cattle stungun. Moss arrives in Eagle Pass and checks into the Hotel Eagle, unaware that violence is about to follow him there.
POV: Ed Tom Bell, Anton Chigurh, Llewelyn Moss·On page: Wendell, McIntyre·Mentioned: Torbert, Loretta
Chapter 5: V
Bell reflects on truth, community, and the claims of the dead. He reads about increasingly bizarre crimes in the papers.
Bell drives to Odessa to find Carla Jean, who tells him she has not heard from Llewelyn. At the Sunshine Cafe, Bell tries to convince her that Moss should turn the money in to save his life, but she refuses to betray her husband. She tells Bell the story of how she met Llewelyn at Wal-Mart when she was sixteen, having dreamed she would find him there. She mentions her grandmother has cancer.
Bell drives to Eagle Pass, where the sheriff shows him the aftermath of a shootout in the streets - dead bodies, shot-up storefronts, and blood. Bell recognises the work of Chigurh's cattle stungun in the death of the hotel night clerk. Back home, Bell and Loretta eat dinner while snow falls, and she asks whether the Moss boy is still alive.
In Houston, a man at a corporate office hires Carson Wells, a former Special Forces lieutenant colonel, to find Chigurh and recover the money. Wells travels to the Eagle Pass hotel, examines Moss's room and finds blood, then discovers an elderly woman shot dead in her apartment across the street. He finds Moss in a Mexican hospital in Piedras Negras, recovering from gunshot wounds. Wells warns Moss about Chigurh's relentless nature and offers to recover the money in exchange for Moss's cooperation, but Moss refuses all help.
POV: Ed Tom Bell, Carson Wells·On page: Llewelyn Moss, Carla Jean Moss, Loretta·Mentioned: Anton Chigurh
Chapter 6: VI
Bell reflects on the difficulty young people have growing up and recalls his own experience going to war at twenty-one. He meditates on the role of a sheriff's wife, praising Loretta's dedication to feeding prisoners well.
Chigurh, badly wounded in the leg from the Eagle Pass shootout, drives to Uvalde and purchases veterinary supplies. He creates a diversion by setting a car on fire outside a drugstore, then steals antibiotics, syringes, and crutches from the pharmacy. He holes up in a motel in Hondo for five days, treating his own wounds. When two deputies appear at the cafe, he quietly slips away.
Wells investigates the bridge where Moss had hidden the money, deducing that Moss threw it into the cane on the American side rather than taking it into Mexico. Bell handles bureaucratic matters and stops a flatbed truck improperly transporting wrapped bodies from the desert massacre. He drives to the Devil's River Bridge and pauses to watch the sunset. Chigurh arrives at the Eagle Pass hotel, realises the transponder signal is coming from a sending unit left in Moss's old room rather than from the money itself, and waits. When Wells arrives at the hotel, Chigurh follows him upstairs with a shotgun.
POV: Ed Tom Bell, Anton Chigurh·On page: Carson Wells·Mentioned: Llewelyn Moss, Loretta
Chapter 7: VII
Bell reflects on his war guilt, having lost a squad of men yet receiving a medal for it. He laments the deterioration of society, comparing school problems from the 1930s with those of the present day.
Chigurh infiltrates the Houston corporate office of the man who hired Wells, climbing seventeen flights of stairs and shooting the man in the throat with birdshot. He kills him methodically and leaves without a trace.
Carla Jean and her mother board a bus to El Paso, the old woman complaining bitterly about being uprooted. Chigurh breaks into their Odessa home, searches through Carla Jean's belongings, takes photographs of her, and finds the Terrell County Sheriff's Department number on the phone bill.
Moss, recovering from his wounds, hires a cab driver to take him to the international bridge, where he retrieves the hidden money case from the cane brake. He pays the driver to take him all the way to San Antonio. There he buys a Tec-9 pistol from a private seller, purchases a truck, and picks up a teenage hitchhiker on the highway. Bell, meanwhile, receives a call from Carla Jean, who reluctantly tells him where Moss called from. Two men in a trailer intercept the call, and one of them drives off in a black Plymouth Barracuda, armed with a submachinegun.
POV: Ed Tom Bell, Anton Chigurh, Llewelyn Moss·On page: Carla Jean Moss, The Hitchhiker·Mentioned: Carson Wells
Chapter 8: VIII
Bell reflects on losing friends, the corruption of peace officers along the border, and his deep unease about the drug trade. He muses about Satan and narcotics.
Moss and the hitchhiker eat together at a roadside restaurant, where they share a long, wry conversation about life, danger, and starting over. He gives her a thousand dollars and drops her at a motel in Van Horn with her own room key, firmly turning down her advances. That night, the man in the black Barracuda catches up to them. A Mexican gunman drags the girl from her room and uses her as a shield. Moss comes out armed but lays down his weapon when the gun is pointed at the girl's head. The Mexican shoves the girl aside and shoots her, then shoots Moss. Despite being riddled with bullets, Moss manages to shoot the Mexican before dying.
Bell drives to Van Horn after receiving word. At the clinic, he identifies Moss's body and the dead girl. He sits in the sheriff's office, then drives back to the motel, sensing something wrong. He finds Moss's room has been broken into - the air duct cover unscrewed and the money taken. Chigurh is sitting in his truck in the dark parking lot. Bell enters the room, finds the shot-out lock cylinder, and realises Chigurh is nearby. He walks out into the lot with his revolver drawn but Chigurh has already gone. Bell calls for backup, but they find nothing. He drives on to El Paso and in the morning delivers the news of Moss's death to Carla Jean.
POV: Ed Tom Bell, Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh·On page: Carla Jean Moss, The Hitchhiker
Chapter 9: IX
Bell reflects on Carla Jean's reaction to the news and the false reports about Moss and the hitchhiker. He tried calling Carla Jean many times, but she would hang up. Then he learned she too had been killed. He contemplates his father's advice about truth and doing the best you know how.
Chigurh visits a businessman's office, presenting the recovered money - two point three million dollars - and pitching himself as a reliable business partner for future operations. The man is wary but intrigued. Chigurh tells him the old people have been dealt with and there will be no more problems.
Carla Jean attends her grandmother's funeral on a cold March day. That evening, she returns home to find Chigurh waiting in her bedroom. He tells her he gave his word to her husband that he would kill her. She pleads with him, but he offers only the coin toss. She calls heads; it comes up tails. He shoots her.
Leaving the house, Chigurh is hit broadside by a car that runs a stop sign three blocks away. He crawls from the wreckage with a broken arm and broken ribs. Two teenage boys find him sitting on a lawn, bleeding. He buys a shirt from one of them to make a sling and walks away before the ambulance arrives.
POV: Ed Tom Bell, Anton Chigurh·On page: Carla Jean Moss·Mentioned: Llewelyn Moss
Chapter 10: X
Bell reflects on growing older, on his wartime guilt, and on speaking with his dead daughter. He recalls Aunt Carolyn's letters to Harold, a young soldier who never came home from the First World War. Bell keeps Harold's medal in a drawer, troubled by the contrast between his own decorated survival and Harold's anonymous death.
Bell recounts visiting the drug massacre site one last time, finding almost no trace of what had happened. He thinks about the violent history of the country and talks to his dead daughter, finding in her imagined counsel the moral clarity he cannot find in himself.
A detective from Odessa calls Bell about Carla Jean's murder. The gun was traced through the FBI database to a boy named David DeMarco, who took it from a truck at an accident scene. Bell drives to meet the investigator Roger Catron and then interviews DeMarco and his friend. The boys describe the man from the wreck - medium height, dark hair, a compound fracture he ignored, ostrich boots - but they cannot provide a name. Chigurh gave them a hundred dollars and told them they did not know what he looked like.
POV: Ed Tom Bell·On page: Roger Catron, David DeMarco·Mentioned: Anton Chigurh, Carla Jean Moss, Llewelyn Moss
Chapter 11: XI
Bell recounts visiting Moss's father in San Saba. The old man sits on his porch and says simply that his son was the best rifle shot he ever saw and that he was not involved in drug deals. He speaks about Vietnam and what it did to young men, saying the country was already broken before the war.
Bell reflects on his decision to retire as sheriff. He tells Loretta, who is surprised and upset. He confesses he can no longer do the job - he has lost his belief in what he was supposed to stand for. He feels defeated, six thousand dollars in debt, and unable to protect the people who elected him.
Bell describes visiting a Mexican man on death row in Huntsville - someone he believes was wrongly convicted of killing a state trooper, a crime Bell suspects Chigurh committed. The condemned man mocks Bell viciously. Later, Bell encounters a county prosecutor who tells him that if you do not follow the law, right and wrong will not save you. Bell asks the man if he knows who Mammon is, and neither of them can say for certain.
POV: Ed Tom Bell·On page: Loretta·Mentioned: Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh
Chapter 12: XII
Bell reflects on waking in the night, his debt to Loretta, and the corrosive power of drug money that can buy whole countries. He recalls telling a reporter that the breakdown starts when people stop saying sir and ma'am. He thinks about old people who look lost and confused in a world they no longer recognise.
Bell walks out of the courthouse for the last time. He cannot name the feeling - it is sadness mixed with something else. Then he recognises it: defeat. Being beaten. More bitter than death.
POV: Ed Tom Bell·On page: Loretta
Chapter 13: XIII
Bell reflects on a stone water trough he once found, carved by hand perhaps centuries ago, and wonders what kind of faith drove the man who made it. He wants to be able to make that kind of promise - something enduring, carved to last ten thousand years.
Bell speaks about his father, a horse trader who died young. He has been older than his father for almost twenty years now. He describes two dreams he had after his father's death. In the first, his father gave him money and he lost it. In the second, they were riding through cold mountains at night, and his father rode past him carrying fire in a horn, going on ahead to make a fire somewhere in all that darkness. Bell knew that when he got there, his father would be waiting. Then he woke up.
POV: Ed Tom Bell