The Power of the Dog recap

On a wealthy Montana ranch, brilliant and domineering Phil Burbank shares an isolated life with his quieter brother George. When George marries widow Rose Gordon and brings her to the ranch, Phil treats her as an intruder and mocks her sensitive son Peter. His constant scrutiny helps drive Rose into secret drinking. Peter later comes home from school and recognizes both his mother's danger and concealed parts of Phil's identity. Phil begins cultivating the boy, teaching him ranch skills and making a rawhide rope, partly to unsettle Rose. Peter responds with apparent trust while preparing a decisive defense. He cuts hide from an anthrax-infected carcass and lets Phil use it while working with an open wound. Phil contracts anthrax and dies, though George sees only a baffling accident. Peter removes the incriminating rope and watches George comfort a newly freed Rose, having used Phil's confidence in him to end the threat to his mother.

In 1920s Montana, brothers Phil and George Burbank operate the prosperous cattle ranch established by their parents. Phil is quick-minded, skilled, and contemptuous of weakness; George is slower in speech, conventional in habits, and tired of being judged by his brother. During a cattle drive they stop at the Red Mill, an eating house run by widow Rose Gordon. Her teenage son Peter has decorated the tables with handmade paper flowers. Phil mocks the boy's manner and leads the ranch hands in humiliating him, reducing Rose to tears after the men leave. George stays behind, treats her gently, and begins visiting without Phil. The encounter exposes a widening difference between the brothers: Phil wants their shared life preserved exactly as it is, while George recognizes in Rose a loneliness resembling his own.

George marries Rose without first telling Phil and brings her to the Burbank ranch. Phil receives the marriage as a betrayal and assumes Rose is interested in the family's money. Rose tries to establish herself in the large, austere house, but Phil's hostility makes her self-conscious. When George arranges a dinner for his parents and the governor, Rose is expected to play the piano. Phil deliberately plays the same music more confidently on his banjo from elsewhere in the house, making her feel exposed and inadequate. George remains devoted but does not fully understand the pressure his brother exerts through looks, sounds, and insinuations. Rose begins drinking in secret. The marriage offers her kindness and security through George, yet life under Phil's observation makes the ranch increasingly unbearable.

Peter returns from school to spend the summer at the ranch. He remains outwardly untouched by the cowhands' mockery and pursues his interest in anatomy by dissecting animals. He quickly notices Rose's hidden drinking and the fear beneath it. Exploring away from the house, Peter discovers Phil's private retreat and evidence that the cultivated rancher conceals interests at odds with the rough identity he performs publicly. He also sees Phil bathing alone and is caught watching. The knowledge changes the balance between them, though neither speaks openly about it. Phil initially treats Peter as another target, while Rose grows more alarmed at having her son within his reach. Peter's detached manner hides how carefully he is studying both Phil and the conditions that are destroying his mother.

Phil abruptly begins treating Peter as a possible companion. He teaches him to ride, speaks about the late Bronco Henry, and starts making him a braided rawhide rope. The attention appears generous but also gives Phil a new way to disturb Rose, who fears what he intends for her son. Peter encourages Phil's confidence and learns more about the emotions hidden beneath his contemptuous manner. Rose, desperate to interrupt the bond, gives away the ranch's stored hides to passing Native American traders. Phil is furious because he needed the hides to complete Peter's rope. During the outburst he has an unprotected cut on his hand. Peter remains calm, outwardly accepting Phil's mentorship while privately resolving that his mother's safety takes precedence over every other consideration.

Peter has found a cow that died of anthrax and, using medical precautions, cut usable strips from its hide. After Rose gives away the clean ranch hides, he offers these strips to Phil. Phil works them into the rope without protecting the open wound on his hand. He soon becomes gravely ill and dies from anthrax. The diagnosis puzzles George because Phil understood the disease and normally avoided infected animals. Peter handles the rope with gloves and removes the evidence that could explain the infection. George mourns his brother without suspecting his stepson. From his room, Peter watches George comfort Rose and understands that Phil's power over her has ended. His apparent submission to Phil was a calculated way to place contaminated hide in Phil's hands and secure his mother's future.

Peter quietly turns Phil's plan to befriend him into a means of protecting Rose. After finding a cow that died of anthrax, Peter cuts strips from its hide while taking precautions against infection. Phil, enraged because Rose has given away the ranch hides he intended to use, accepts Peter's strips to finish a rawhide rope. A wound on Phil's hand gives the infection a path into his body. He becomes rapidly ill and dies; a doctor identifies anthrax as the cause, surprising George because Phil normally knew the danger and avoided diseased cattle. Peter handles the unfinished rope carefully and then destroys or removes the evidence linking it to him. From his room he watches George comfort Rose. With Phil gone, she can recover from the fear and drinking that overtook her at the ranch, and Peter's private purpose has been achieved. George mourns without understanding that his stepson deliberately caused his brother's death.