Maria, Ben and Javy graduate from the University of Arizona together. Maria has dated both but marries Ben. Ben and Javy become deputies in Cochise, a county bordering Mexico where drug and people smugglers are as thick as cacti, dangerous as rattlesnakes, and dead bodies appear daily as migrants die crossing the desert to enter the United States illegally. Ben is elected sheriff, names Javy chief deputy. Ben and Maria have three children. Javy marries a barrel racer and fathers a child. Loses wife to cancer. The three join forces with governor, a U.S. Senator, two members of the House of Representatives and a rancher/ State Senator in an attempt to persuade Congress to enact a guest-worker program. Ranchers become vigilantes. Supremacists arrive. Ben is killed. State Senator found dead on his ranch. A ranch hand is killed while riding fence. Governor appoints Maria sheriff. Javy helps Maria find killers.