Eric, a 14-year-old boy, is now almost alone. His mother, faced with her husband's bizarre behavior, left the marital home. Eric's father, for his part, leads a triple existence. On the other hand, he maintains apparently normal relations with his son, but at the same time he leads an unacknowledged, secret life "elsewhere", where confused, equivocal relations bind him to a strange, elusive woman, whose vision sometimes inspires feelings of filial love, sometimes reveals to him the bitter taste of a passion faded by time.

Mexican gunfighter Dave Robles outdraws the town's outlaw-turned-sheriff and is invited to fill the dead man's shoes. But a tin star doesn't bring automatic respectability and Robles is shunned by the town's leading citizens. His popularity with its less-savory element, particularly saloonkeeper Bannister, wanes dramatically, too, as he starts to take his job seriously. It is his love for a decent, caring woman that keeps Dave in town, but can she convince him to lay down his gun and start a new life?