Montana 1948 - Plot

Plot

When David's Native American housekeeper Marie Little Soldier falls ill, Frank Hayden, the local doctor and David's uncle, is called. When Marie refuses medical treatment from Frank, David's mother Gail discovers that Frank has been using his medical status to prey on the local Native American women. David's father Wesley, the local sheriff, then begins to look deeper into these allegations as even though Frank is his brother, he must uphold justice.

When Marie is found dead, Frank convinces the family it is due to pneumonia. Not long after Marie's death, David decides to tell his parents that he has witnessed Frank leaving their house around the same time Marie had died. Wesley then confronts Frank at a family dinner at their parents' house and later outside where they reach a compromise. David, who was playing with his grandfather's hunting rifle, once contemplates shooting Frank because of all the troubles he has given them. This places Wesley between a rock and a hard place (arrest him or let him go free, family loyalty or justice).

Wesley goes to work investigating this and eventually arrests Frank, who confesses to killing Marie and molesting Indian women, and holds him captive in the basement, in order to avoid the embarrassment Frank would experience by going to the local jail. Wesley and Frank's controlling and racist father Julian is strongly opposed to Frank's arrest and sends henchmen to break Frank free when Wesley is not home. Gail manages to repel them by firing warning shots into the air, whilst the young David runs to call for help. Eventually this all gets too much for Gail and she wishes for Frank to be released out of her home. Wesley's moral values override his family loyalty and he is obliged to take his brother to be locked up in the local jail the next day. Later that night the family wake to the sound of jars smashing in the basement. In the morning Wesley finds that Frank has committed suicide by slitting his wrists with the broken glass.

The family's problems are essentially solved, letting the rest of the town believe Frank died by accident. Soon after, David's family move out of Bentrock, as Frank's death sealed the final fallout between Wesley and Julian, and the secrets they kept become too much to bear.