Cities of the Plain is the final volume of American novelist Cormac McCarthy's "Border Trilogy", published in 1998.

Recently devastated by drought, cattle ranches around El Paso are struggling and may be claimed by the Department of Defense, through eminent domain, to become military areas.

After John Grady's death, a short epilogue—not unlike the conclusion of Blood Meridian (1985)—details, in a few pages, the next several decades of Billy's life.

After drifting across the Southwest for many years, working ranches and living in hotels, Billy, homeless, takes shelter beneath a highway underpass.

[2][3] A film adaptation, directed by Andrew Dominik and starring James Franco, was stated to be in development, but as of 2018 these plans appeared to have fallen through.