Joined by his best friend, Tracy Two Dogs, (a Blackfoot Indian with no small trouble of his own) Roy drowns his frustration in a mixture of tequila and self-pity. But in Blue Springs, Montana, alcohol begets violence, and the soon-reached limits of small-town Saturday night only add brutality to Roy's despair.

Enter Gideon Ferguson, a canny giant of a man who ekes out a life among barflies, hawking newspapers in the two a.m. nether world of closing time. Gid is seeking "gamers"—kids who scrap hard— to play on his Six-Man football squad, and he recruits Roy to be his quarterback.

Over the course of the season, Gid and Roy enter into a tenuous friendship. For Gid, the football team provides a sense of purpose in a life nearly bled dry. For Roy, the game is a pure response to life— if you break enough tackles and keep sprinting for open ground, you might outrun your inside trouble. It's as if they complete each other: Roy permits Gid a dimension of grace, a glimmer of innocence Gid has never known; Gid grants Roy a portal into adulthood.

Entering Gid's world, Roy becomes witness to a tender side of Gid, who constantly looks after his old pal Studebaker, a sad-luck drifter. More importantly for Roy, the honky-tonk nightlife introduces him to Skyla, a dark-eyed bartender several years Roy's senior. Their burgeoning romance and Roy’s growing friendship with Gid collide, complicating all of their lives.

The Slaughter Rule is a rough season in a young man's life, a season of exposure, prejudice, and ultimately - compassion. -- © Cowboy Pictures [Less]