It recasts in a modern setting (California’s Salinas Valley around the turn of the century) the haunting Biblical tale of Cain and Abel.

Half brothers Adam and Charles Trask share a mysterious devotion, as well as an intense rivalry. When the lovely but immoral Cathy Ames enters their lives, Adam mistakes her beauty for goodness and marries her. But Cathy soon commits adultery with Charles, bears twin sons, and eventually deserts husband, children and lover to take up residence in a brothel. The twin boys grow up believing their mother had died in childbirth.

Like their father and uncle, Caleb and Aaron compete with and depend on each other.