Louisiana Creole Gabriel Fortier comes of age ten years after the end of World War II under the influence of men who have returned from war with desires for other men that being a soldier in the trenches has developed in them. Gabriel has no barriers to being submissive to men, and when this gets him into trouble in rural Louisiana, he answers the call of former classmate, Adrian Ames, who had been his first limited experience with men, to join him in Lubbock, Texas. Gabriel’s bus ticket only gets him as far as Guthrie, Texas, though, shy of the Lubbock goal, where, to gather the onward travel funds he needs, he becomes a waiter and rent-boy in the local diner. He gets to Lubbock eventually, where he finds Adrian has gone on to Hollywood, and a calming interlude with rancher, Frank Doyle, and not-so-calming encounters with actors filming a Western epic in the area, lead Gabriel on to Hollywood himself and a reunion of sorts with Adrian. Somehow, this isn’t enough for Gabriel. He’s left something behind under the big sky of Texas that calls to him, telling him there is something of more value to him in life than drifting through it as a rent-boy.