Brokeback Mountain has a sad ending. Ennis del Mar, who had begun a passionate love affair with Jack Twist when they were both teenagers hired to tend sheep in Wyoming, learns that Jack has died. He discovers this after receiving a returned postcard that he had sent to Jack. The postcard had a "deceased" stamp on it.

Ennis, who had arguably been the love of Jack's life, despite societal convention ensuring that they both married women, contacts Jack's wife to find out what had happened. According to Jack's wife, Laureen, he had been killed by a tire iron in a freak accident while pumping up a tire. The tragic irony in this is that one of the reasons that Jack had resisted being with Ennis was that he didn't want to end up getting beaten to death with a tire iron. Ennis, of course, suspects foul play and wonders if this fate that Jack dreaded was the exact one that he met.

The story ends with Jack's desire to have his ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain thwarted by his father, who insists that his son's remains be buried in the family plot. Ennis, filled with nostalgia, has a dream about the Jack he had first met on Brokeback Mountain.