in 1870s Texas, Renaldo Valle Santos, the youngest son of a large and traditional family, has been sent to train with Henry "Hank" Burnett, a freed slave and talented mestenero—or horse-catcher—so he may continue the family horse trade. Bitter Springs is a sweeping epic that takes themes from traditional Mexican literature and Old Westerns to tell the story of a man coming into his own and realizing his destiny lies in the wild open spaces with the man who loves him, far from expectations of society.