The book is the second installment of McCarthy's "Border Trilogy," following the award-winning All the Pretty Horses (1992), and preceding Cities of the Plain, where the protagonists of both novels work together on a ranch in southern New Mexico.

[1][2][3] The book begins focusing on the life of the protagonist, Billy Parham, and his brother Boyd, with their family living in southern New Mexico in the early 20th Century.

The Crossing is a coming-of-age novel, and throughout the book, physical, cultural, and social boundaries play a large role in the telling of the story.

[2] Although the novel is not overtly satirical or humorous, it has many of the qualities of a picaresque: a realistic portrayal of a destitute hero embarking on a series of loosely connected, arguably doomed quests.

The first sojourn details a series of hunting expeditions conducted by Billy, his father, and to a lesser extent, his brother Boyd.

When Billy finally catches the animal, he harnesses her and, instead of killing her, determines to return her to the mountains of Mexico where he believes her original home is located.

Their relationship is a strained one, with Boyd displaying a more stubborn nature than that of his brother, a characteristic that hinders Billy's attempts to protect him.

He learns Boyd has been killed in a gunfight and sets out to find his dead brother's remains and return them to New Mexico.

Wallis Sanborn argues that “[a]lthough noble, Parham’s mission to return the captured she-wolf to Mexico is abjectly flawed .