Marcos is a lad in Texas, the second son of a migrant farmworker family, his brother is missing in the Korean war. We travel with the family into Minnesota, following the crops. The housing is awful, sometimes the boss furnishes no water as the hands labor, and TB goes untreated. In good times the pay is $15 a day for adults, half that for children. For a few sordid weeks, his parents leave him in the care of a corrupt couple, he’s expelled from school for hitting back, and he finds solace in a graveyard. As his parents long for their missing son, as folks gather around a local troubadour for songs of romance, comedy, and heartbreak, Marcos observes and remembers.