A monumental confrontation in the 1920's between a ruthless robber baron owner of a USA oil company and a Indian Mexican farmer (steward/owner of the White Rose hacienda). A clash of two cultures, total exploitation for maximum profit vs. reverence for the land and what flows from it. As in this novel: We all are poor people, delight in the machine, in the airplane, the radio precisely because we have lost our attachment to the soil. This loss leaves us apathetic and distracted. That's why we need gasoline - to anesthetize us, to make us insensible of our loss, of our pain, gasoline that deludes us with speed so that we can flee all the quicker from ourselves and the needs of the heart. A Collector's Edition