Junior Bonner, a rodeo pro on the wrong side of 40, returns to his home town for the annual 4th of July Frontier Days. His father is a dissolute dreamer fixed on finding gold in Australia, his mother is resigned to her husband's roving, and he finds his brother Curly is tearing up the countryside to make a million in real estate. Junior just wants to stay on a bucking Brahma for eight seconds, hang out with his dad, find a way to spend time with a beautiful woman whose eyes catch his, and earn enough to get to next week's rodeo. As the old West and its code give way to progress, Junior is lonesome, laconic, and on the road - just where he wants to be.