After serving prison time for a self-defence killing, Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage) finally reunites with his dream girl Lula Fortune (Laura Dern).
Lula's mother Marietta (Diane Ladd), desperate to keep the young lovers apart, hires a hitman to kill Sailor. But a whole new set of troubles await the couple when Sailor and Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe), an old buddy of Sailor's with dangerous designs of his own, try to rob a store.