Plot
Two off-duty sergeants discover a human skeleton on an old U.S. Army rifle shooting range along with a Masonic ring, a Rio County sheriff's badge, and, later, an expended .45 pistol bullet. Sam Deeds, sheriff of Rio County, Frontera, Texas, begins an investigation. Forensics backs up the identity of the skeleton as Charlie Wade, the infamously corrupt sheriff who preceded Sam's recently deceased father, Buddy. Wade mysteriously disappeared in 1957, along with US$10,000 in county funds. Buddy's esteemed reputation for justice and subsequent election as Sheriff after Wade's disappearance led to the widespread belief that Buddy confronted Wade and ran him out of town.
Frontera, on the banks of the Rio Grande, is a border town with racial strife among the Tejano, African American, Native American, and European American populations. There, the White population is no longer the majority. As a teenager, Sam hated his tyrannical father and left town as soon as he was old enough. He only returned to the town two years prior.
The town is enlarging and renaming their courthouse in Buddy's honor and proposing the building of an unneeded new prison. As a teenager, Sam had been in love with Tejano girl Pilar Cruz. However, their relationship was strongly opposed by both Buddy and Pilar's mother Mercedes, who took steps to separate them.
After a chance meeting, the now divorced Sam and the widowed Pilar, now a teacher, begin to rekindle their lingering passion. Mercedes is again against this. Pilar mistakenly believes that Mercedes objects to Sam because of his "Anglo" ethnicity. Despite being of Mexican origin, however, Mercedes devalues Mexicans, claiming she is of Spanish descent.
Colonel Delmore Payne has returned to town as the commander of the local U.S. Army base. Delmore has been estranged from his father Otis "Big O" Payne, a local nightclub owner and leader of the Black community, since childhood, when the serial womanizer abandoned Delmore and his mother. When a quarrel involving a soldier from the base results in a shooting at Otis's club—witnessed by Delmore's own resentful underage son who is surreptitiously at the club to scout out his grandfather—Delmore confronts Otis and threatens to make his establishment "off-limits." Otis counters that his establishment is the only place in town where Black soldiers are welcome.
Despite being warned by Mayor Hollis Pogue and other prominent local figures not to look into events from forty years before, Sam doggedly investigates the events leading up to Wade's murder. Wade terrorized the local Black and Mexican communities, extorting money from business owners and committing numerous murders by setting up his victims and shooting them for "resisting arrest". In front of a horrified Deputy Sheriff Hollis, Wade murdered Eladio Cruz, Mercedes's husband, who was running a migrant smuggling operation across the border without kickbacks to Wade.
Uncovering secrets about his father's term as sheriff, Sam discovers Buddy's own corruption, kickbacks, and use of prison labor for personal building projects. Buddy forcibly evicted residents of a small community to make a lake, with Buddy and Hollis receiving lakefront property, which made Frontera a popular tourist destination. Sam eventually discovers love letters from Buddy's longtime mistress—Mercedes Cruz.
Sam confronts Hollis and Otis about Wade's murder. Upon discovering Otis's clandestine gambling operation at the nightclub, a furious Wade ordered Otis to hand over extortion money. Wade was about to use his "resisting arrest" setup to kill Otis. Buddy arrived just as Hollis shot Wade to prevent Otis's murder. The three buried the body and took $10,000 from the county as an alibi for Wade's "abscondence". They gave the money to Mercedes—who was destitute after Wade killed Eladio—to buy her restaurant. Buddy and Mercedes later got involved. Sam decides to drop the issue, saying that Wade's murder will remain unsolved. Hollis is concerned that people will assume that Buddy killed Wade to take his job. Sam replies that Buddy's legend can handle it.
Showing Pilar an old photo of Buddy embracing Mercedes, Sam says that Eladio died 18 months before she was born, revealing that Buddy is Pilar's father. Both are appalled over the years of deception and repercussions, but since Pilar cannot have any more children, they decide to continue their romantic relationship, despite the knowledge that they are half-siblings.
