Heraldo Rial is the eighty-year-old cattle rancher in charge of one thousand hectares of Patagonian wilderness. He is one of the last 'gauchos': proud, self-reliant cowboys who have lived off the land for generations. But with civilisation encroaching on their traditions, the gauchos' way of life is dying out, and Rial has a lot of wisdom to impart as he prepares for what could be his last winter in the mountains.