The sons of a Basque sheep herder who's part of a community near Dodge are faced with a manhood ritual. A Basque boy must defeat his father in a fist fight. The older son had beaten a schoolyard rival to death in a fight while a boy in the old country, and wants nothing to do with the ritual. The younger son has no such qualms, and wins the fight with his father in a surprise (inadvertently ramming the old man's head into a huge cast-iron water jug). This leads to the ostracizing of Manolo, made worse when he doesn't spot a wolf attacking the herd and loses sheep and a dog in the process. Manolo goes to work sweeping up at the Long Branch, while his younger brother follows and tries to persuade him that he can fight this.