While in Southern California near the Mexico border, Tod and Buz come across a young German man named Eric who has a photograph of a man named Ralph Vincent in military uniform, accompanied by a young woman. On the back of the photo is scribbled "Chula Vista", assumed to be Ralph's location. Over the course of Tod and Buz's time with Eric, he tells them a few different stories about the reason he's in California. With information and evidence, they learn the first story is a fantasized version of the truth: that he came specifically to meet Ralph, the father he has never met, Ralph an American soldier fighting in Germany during WWII at the time he and his mother Lisa knew each other, she the woman in the photo and who died years ago. Poor Ralph has been been as supportive a father as he could be from a distance and with his limited financial means. However, they eventually learn the Eric's entire true story and the reason he's there: Ralph probably does not even know or care that Eric exists, and he came to kill Ralph to avenge his deserting them as a family. Instead of their original plan to do ranching work in Yuma, Tod and Buz decide to get jobs as two of the many migrant pickers on Ralph's expansive farm to monitor the situation, where they rightly believe they will find Eric. However, Ralph has just married a woman named Norma, which may change the entire nature of the Ralph/Eric/Norma collective as living "family".
—Huggo