[2] Its plot features a skilled and successful hunter and lawyer, Madec, who receives a rare permit to shoot bighorn sheep in California's Mojave Desert for seven days.

The story begins with successful Los Angeles businessman and hunter named Madec, who hires Ben, a college student, to help him find bighorn sheep in the nearby Mojave Desert after receiving a rare permit to hunt them.

Ben has experience working in the desert, as he is studying to be a geologist, but he is also low on money, so he accepts.

Time is running out as he begins to hallucinate, suffering from dehydration, hunger, sunburn, gunshots, and heat.

[3][4] The book was the basis for the 1974 television film Savages, starring Andy Griffith as Madec and Sam Bottoms as Ben, and the 2014 film Beyond the Reach, starring Michael Douglas as Madec and Jeremy Irvine as Ben.