Milton is a Native American man whose wife and son abandoned him recently due to his uncontrolled alcoholism and abuse. The two went to California, his son enrolling in eighth grade there and vowing that he no longer has a father. Down and out, Milton found work for Oldenburg, an old White man who owns a ranch in the same area of Arizona as him. Though the pay isn't much, Milton gets to live on the land, so long as he swears to stop drinking. One day, Milton is visibly hungover, but Oldenburg says he will allow for one mistake, so he can stay, and the two form a close friendship. He recalls different stories with Oldenberg, like how when he was a child, his father had been drunk driving with their entire family when he smashed into another truck, sending them flying out of the truckbed and irreversibly disfiguring their mother's head. Over the course of a year, Milton remained sober, even starting an affair with a local woman, all the while writing to his family in California and sending them money, despite never getting a response from them. A close friend of his dies in a bar fight, so Milton goes to grieve with his old buddies, who bait him into drinking, though when they're not looking, he vomits it up. When he writes to CC, his wife, about the woman's passing, she finally replies, grieving with him and thanking him for the money he's been sending. She says that she may be ready to move back home, and although their son Allen is still hesitant, she knows he'll agree in the end. Seeing his old buddies again, they celebrate the good, albeit precocious news, about CC's return and the group drinks to it. The next day, Milton is once again hungover and Oldenburg can tell immediately. He explains that he's already allowed for one mistake and that if he were to allow for another, then nothing he said would hold any value. Oldenburg tells him it's time they moved on from each other. Milton writes to CC saying he lost his job but that he has plenty in savings, and although he attempts to cover up the cause of his unemployment, CC can see right through him, saying she won't return to conditions like that again, though she'll continue to write. She updates him on Allen and his progress through high school, how he's doing well in sports and academics. One drunken night, Milton falls asleep outside in the freezing desert night, causing him to contract pneumonia. He is hospitalized, his buddies trying to cheer him up, but soon he suffers a heart attack and needs even more serious treatment. As he is being treated, he sees Allen and CC in the room, and reaches his hand out to them.