The plot of Shane is a simple one. The refined stranger who has happened upon the Starrett homestead, we discover, is a virtuous gunfighter who is attempting to begin a new life. When Joe Starrett, Bob's father, invites him to stay on as a hired hand, he agrees, having learned from Joe that the previous hand had been run off by Fletcher, the powerful and unscrupulous rancher vying for land with the homesteaders in the …showed first 75 words of 287 total…

…showed last 75 words of 287 total…being there with him that I could not keep the tears from my eyes. . . . He knew what goes on in a boy's mind and what can help him stay clean inside through the muddled, dirtied years of growing up. Although the end leaves the relationship between Shane and Marian, the end does leave the story open for the possibility that Shane has simply moved on to another town and that the story will go on.