Legends of the Fall

For seven years, things go well for Tristan at the ranch. On a cattle drive, he purchases several cases of whiskey from a smuggler. He is traveling with One Stab, Two, Decker, and some ranch hands. On the way back to the ranch, they are stopped by federal officers because of the smuggled whiskey. The officers fire their guns in the air to stop the cars, and one of the bullets ricochets and kills Isabel Two. Tristan beats two officers nearly to death and serves 30 days in jail for the crime.

Susanna, meanwhile, is plagued by mental health issues. Alfred buys a house in Helena, Montana in hopes that it might do Susannah good to spend summers there. He asks Tristan to write to Susannah, thinking that her guilt over the marriage is causing her mental instability, and Tristan agrees. Susanna receives the letter from Tristan and, still in love with him, finds a false reason to hope.

Tristan begins smuggling whiskey from Canada with pack horses and then decides to use his grandfather's ship to smuggle liquor from Vancouver to San Francisco. Before he leaves, he sees Susannah, and she asks him to have sex with her. Later, she apologizes and threatens to take her own life. He convinces her not to by telling her that they might be together again one day. He is lying, but she does not kill herself, and everyone is surprised by her change in behavior over the next year.

Tristan makes his first run from Vancouver to San Francisco. But he and his partner are beaten by a group of men who control liquor distribution on the West Coast. On their next trip, when their boat is attacked, they kill the four men who attack them and then sail south for Mexico. Tristan stays in Mexico for the winter but misses his children and travels back to Montana, arriving in June. When he returns to the ranch, Decker mentions that two friends of his had stopped by. Tristan realizes that the men have come to find him. Decker told them that Tristan was heading to Saratoga to visit Susannah and Alfred, and so he leaves immediately for New York. Once there, he finds the two men and kills them. He sees Susanna, and she asks him to run away to Paris, but he puts her off. Alfred finds them in an embrace and threatens to kill Tristan. Tristan gives him his gun to do it, but Alfred turns it on himself. Tristan knocks it out of his hand, and Susannah tells Alfred that she will always stay with him. Tristan leaves, returning to Montana.

In September, Tristan gets a note from Alfred that he is sending Susannah to Montana. Tristan meets the train, and she is lying dead in a coffin. They bury her next to Samuel and Isabel Two on the ranch. One day, two policemen arrive, but Tristan recognizes them as men from the West Coast who have come to kill him. Ludlow comes out of the house and shoots them.