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The Calling is a story about a northern New Mexico cattle ranch, the Cross S or Piedra (stone), in the 1950s. The action unfolds through the eyes of Frank Dalton, a half-breed Indian top hand on the ranch, as he teaches an enigmatic young would-be cowboy named R.C. Roth the ways of cowboying, rodeoing, and life itself. As Dalton educates Roth to the ways of "the calling," both men become embroiled in complicated love affairs - Dalton with the daughter of a top hand on a neighboring ranch, and Roth with Francesca "Kika" Jaramillo, daughter of a Hispanic rancher-friend of the Cross S's Boss Stone. In addition, both cowboys are confronted with a puzzle begging to be solved - at the top of the formidable mesa overlooking the Stone ranch is a single, solitary grave marked with a granite headstone bearing the mysterious inscription, Abajo Verdad - Arriba Cielo (below is truth, above is sky).