Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist meet in the summer of 1963 when they are hired for the season to do the remote and isolated work guarding Joe Aguirre's flock of sheep in the open range on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. While both are from farming/ranching backgrounds, they are different both in the opportunities they've had and in personality: non-demonstrative Ennis, having grown up without parents or family money, holds his thoughts and feelings largely to himself, while Jack, having made connections through the rodeo circuit, is more open about what he wants in life. Although both live as straight with Ennis scheduled to get married to his girlfriend Alma in November, they, more out of a physical need, have a spur of the moment sexual encounter with each other, which Ennis sees as one time only. However by the end of the season, they have fallen in love with each other. As they finish their work on Brokeback Mountain, they have to figure out how to reconcile their feelings for each other not only in a generally straight world, but the hyper masculine one in which they exist.