Two off-duty sergeants from the base discover a human skeleton on an old U.S. Army rifle shooting range along with a Masonic ring, a Rio County sheriff's badge, and, later, an expended .45 pistol bullet. Sam Deeds, sheriff of Frontera, Texas, begins an investigation. Texas Ranger Ben Wetzel agrees with Sam that forensics backs up the identify of the skeleton as Charlie Wade, the infamously corrupt and cruel sheriff who preceded Buddy Deeds. Wade mysteriously disappeared in 1957, along with $10,000 in county funds. Buddy Deeds’ big reputation and election as Sheriff resulted from his being widely believed to have confronted the despised Charlie Wade on his corruption and driven him from town.
Frontera is a border town with racial strife among the Tejano, African American, Native American, and Anglo populations, where the Anglo population is no longer the majority. Sam holds that office because he is the son of recently deceased legendary Sheriff Buddy Deeds. Sam is not a “team player”, however, and Mayor Hollis Pogue and others are considering replacing him. As a teenager Sam hated and rebelled against his tyrannical father, leaving town as soon as he was old enough. Since his return to the town two years prior, Sam has chafed under constant comparison to the inflated reputation of the beloved Buddy Deeds.
The town is enlarging and renaming the local courthouse in Buddy’s honor and proposing the building of an unneeded new prison. Sam is skeptical about the use of Buddy Deed’s name by local business leaders, such as Mercedes Cruz and Buddy's former chief deputy, Mayor Hollis Pogue, to promote projects for personal profit using taxpayers’ money. As a teenager, Sam had been in love with Mercedes's Tejano daughter, Pilar, but the passionate relationship was strongly opposed by both Buddy and Mercedes, who took steps to separate them.
After a chance meeting in the present, the divorced Sam and the widowed Pilar, now a local teacher, begin to rekindle their lingering passion, again with staunch opposition from Mercedes who Pilar mistakenly believes objects to Sam because he is not of Spanish heritage.
Colonel Delmore Payne has returned to town as the commander of the local U.S. Army base. Son of Otis "Big O" Payne, a local nightclub owner and leader of the Black community, Delmore has been estranged from his father since childhood, when the serial womanizer abandoned Delmore and his mother. When a quarrel involving a soldier from the base results in a shooting death at Otis’s club—witnessed by the colonel’s own resentful underage son who is surreptitiously at the club to scout out his grandfather—Colonel Payne confronts Otis and threatens to make his establishment “off-limits.” Otis counters that his establishment is the only place in town where Black soldiers are welcome.
Sam has always doubted the “official story” of Wade’s disappearance. Despite being warned by Mayor Hollis Pogue and prominent local figures not to poke into events 30 years ago, Sam doggedly investigates the events leading up to Wade's murder. Wade terrorized the local Black and Mexican communities, extorting money from business owners and committing murders by setting up his victims and shooting them for "resisting arrest". In front of Deputy Hollis Pogue, Sheriff Wade murdered Eladio Cruz, Mercedes' husband, who was running a migrant smuggling operation across the border without kickbacks to Wade.
Uncovering secrets about his father's nearly 30-year term as sheriff, Sam discovers Buddy's own corruption, kickbacks, and use of prison labor for personal building projects. Buddy forcibly evicted residents of a small community to make a lake, with Buddy and Hollis receiving lakefront property. Going through old boxes of Buddy’s papers, Sam discovers love letters from Buddy's longtime mistress—Mercedes Cruz.
Sam confronts Hollis and Otis about Wade's murder. Upon discovering Otis’s clandestine gambling operation at the nightclub, a furious Wade ordered Otis to hand over extortion money. Wade was about to use his "resisting arrest" setup to kill Otis. Buddy Deeds arrived just as Hollis shot Wade to prevent Otis's murder. The three buried the body and took $10,000 from the county as an alibi for Wade’s “abscondence”. They gave the money to Mercedes—who was destitute after Wade killed Eladio—to buy her restaurant. Buddy and Mercedes later got involved. Sam decides to drop the issue, saying Wade’s murder will remain unsolved. Hollis is concerned that people will assume Buddy killed Wade to take his job. Sam replies, “Buddy’s a goddam legend; he can handle it.”
Showing Pilar an old photo of Buddy embracing Mercedes, Sam tells her Eladio died 18 months before she was born, revealing Buddy is Pilar's father. Both are appalled over the years of deception and repercussions, but since Pilar cannot have any more children, they decide to continue their romantic relationship, despite the knowledge that they are half-siblings.
