Cities of the Plain
Chapters - Cormac McCarthy
Chapter 1: I
In 1952, John Grady Cole and Billy Parham work as cowboys on Mac McGovern's ranch near El Paso, Texas, alongside hands Troy, JC, Oren, and the old man Mr Johnson. Billy is now in his late twenties and John Grady is nineteen. They visit a brothel in Juarez where John Grady sees a young prostitute named Magdalena and is immediately captivated. Back at the ranch, they work cattle, break horses, and eat meals cooked by Socorro. John Grady begins training a difficult colt while Billy teases him about his growing infatuation. John Grady returns to the brothel district, visits a blind maestro who plays at the Cafe Moderno, and begins secretly courting Magdalena, who is owned by a pimp named Eduardo.
On page: Billy Parham, Troy, JC, Oren, Mr Johnson, Mac McGovern, Socorro, Magdalena, Eduardo, Joaquin, John Grady Cole, The maestro, Delbert, Wolfenbarger
Chapter 2: II
John Grady's obsession with Magdalena deepens. He waits for her at a hotel but she does not come. Back at the ranch, Billy questions him and John Grady admits he is trying to see a girl but that it is complicated. He returns to the brothel in Juarez and visits Magdalena, and through the blind maestro he learns something of her circumstances. He attends a lion hunt in the Franklin Mountains with Billy, Travis, and the other hands, using Archer's dogs. Meanwhile he makes plans to marry Magdalena, approaching the problem with the same single-minded determination he brings to breaking horses. Billy warns him that the situation is dangerous and foolish, but John Grady will not be dissuaded.
On page: Billy Parham, Magdalena, Troy, JC, Oren, Archer, Travis, Eduardo, Mac McGovern, John Grady Cole, The maestro, Socorro, Mr Johnson, Tiburcio, Wolfenbarger, The Criada
Chapter 3: III
John Grady and Billy discover wild dogs are killing calves on the ranch and spend days tracking them across the mesa country. They bring in Travis and Archer with hounds to hunt the dogs down. John Grady continues his secret courtship of Magdalena, attempting to arrange her escape from Eduardo and the White Lake brothel. He negotiates with a criada to smuggle her out and makes plans to set up a home in an abandoned cabin, but Eduardo discovers the scheme. Billy confronts John Grady repeatedly, telling him he is headed for disaster, but John Grady is resolute.
On page: Billy Parham, Travis, Archer, Magdalena, Eduardo, Mac McGovern, John Grady Cole, Joaquin, JC, Troy, Socorro, Mr Johnson, Oren, Tiburcio, The Criada
Chapter 4: IV
Magdalena is found dead in the river shallows, her throat cut by Eduardo, who killed her rather than let her leave. John Grady goes to the morgue and identifies her body. He rides aimlessly through the countryside in grief, then goes to Juarez with his father's hunting knife to confront Eduardo. They fight in an alley behind the White Lake with knives, and both are mortally wounded. Billy arrives too late - he finds John Grady dying in a packingcrate shelter where a street boy brought him, and holds him as he dies. Billy speaks with a Mexican police captain about what happened, confirming that Eduardo killed the girl out of a twisted possessiveness.
On page: Billy Parham, Magdalena, Eduardo, Mac McGovern, Socorro, John Grady Cole, Tiburcio
Epilogue
Billy leaves Mac's ranch three days after John Grady's death, settling up his pay and saying goodbye to Socorro, who will not look at him. He rides out before dawn and drifts through the decades of a terrible drought in west Texas, growing old alone. By the year 2001, he is a seventy-eight-year-old destitute living in a hotel in El Paso. Evicted and desolate, he shelters under a highway overpass in Arizona, dreaming of his sister who died as a child and of Boyd dead in Mexico. He wakes to find another traveller across the road and they share crackers. The stranger speaks of death and dreams, and Billy weeps. A woman later takes him in, offering him a room, and he sits at her kitchen table crying while she tells him that she and her family want him to stay.
On page: Billy Parham, Mac McGovern, Socorro, The Horse-Trader (Epilogue)·Mentioned: Boyd Parham, John Grady Cole