Legends of the Fall

Content Warning: The source material includes descriptions of murder. It also utilizes offensive stereotypes of Indigenous Americans and frequently refers to characters by their ethnicity. These terms are replicated in the guide only in direct quotes from the source material.

In October 1914, three brothers, Alfred, Tristan, and Samuel leave their father's ranch in Montana to ride north to Calgary and enlist to fight in World War I. They are accompanied by One Stab, their father’s closest friend. Alfred is the eldest brother, Tristan the middle, and Samuel the youngest. Along the way, they stop at a roadside tavern, but the owner refuses to let One Stab enter. Tristan beats the man then pays for liquor and beer, and they picnic outside. They arrive in Calgary and are trained for a month in Quebec, where their positions in the army are fixed: Alfred is an officer, Tristan a horse wrangler, and Samuel an aide-de-camp.

Back at the Montana ranch, their father, Ludlow, becomes sick while he waits for One Stab to return with news of his sons. He writes letters to his wife, Isabel, who spends winters in Boston. She asked Ludlow to keep Samuel out of the war and left early for Boston when he did not. He regrets letting Samuel go to war. He is lonely without his sons and dines with the couple who run his ranch, Decker and Pet, along with their daughter Isabel and One Stab. He also moves Decker, Pet, and Isabel (otherwise known as Two, to avoid confusion with his wife) into the main house. Ludlow decides to tutor Isabel Two, who refuses to go to school.

That night, Ludlow dreams that his three sons die. He looks in their bedrooms, which illustrate their respective personalities. In Tristan's room, which is spare and minimal, he finds a copy of the book Ludlow had written 30 years before, during his time as an engineer for the army. The book was an assessment of the Black Hills and their importance to the Sioux, and he remains disgusted with the army’s treatment of the Sioux. He remembers Custer, whom he knew personally and disliked so much that he was glad when he heard of his death. He thinks of Tristan's similarity to his own father, a schooner captain who had been absent most of his life, wild and charming and unable to take orders from another man.

Winter comes, and Isabel writes him letters asking him to use his influence to get Samuel out of the army. In late January, they receive news that Alfred has been injured, but is recovering in the hospital and will come home in May. Tristan goes to visit Alfred. When Tristan leaves the hospital, a friend tells him that Samuel has been killed. Tristan, his friend, and a man who survived the attack that killed Samuel return to the scene, and Tristan finds Samuel’s body. He cuts out his heart, and they encase it in a canister of wax. When Alfred returns to Montana, he will bring the canister so that it can be buried on the ranch.

Tristan goes mad with grief and starts collecting German scalps. He is sent to a mental hospital in Paris. The doctor allows Tristan to escape, and he goes to his grandfather’s house in Cornwall. After a month, he sails with his grandfather, who drops him off in Boston. He is reunited with his fiancée Susannah, his mother, and Alfred. He and Susannah marry just a few days later, and they all board a train to Montana. They arrive in late April and bury Samuel's heart.