 Jack McKee (Jeff Bridges) and Cecil Colson (Sam Waterston) are two bumbling drifters whom make a living by rustling cattle from other peoples herds in the wilds of Montana. Jack is from a wealthy background whom left his parents whom he resented their posh lives, and Cecil is a Native American half-breed whom seeks his own path in life away from his father (Joe Spinell). Both hustle and rustle their way in the world by targeting cattle owned by wealthy ranch owner John Brown (Clifton James) who, frustrated that someone is killing his cattle, hires a pair of ranch hands Burt and Curt (Richard Bright and Harry Dean Stanton) to find the rustlers. When Brown realizes he cannot trust his two inept ranch hands, he turns to the grizzled former rustler Henry Beige (Slim Pickens) to find the cattle thieves, while Jack and Cecil are always one step ahead of them, not realizing that their luck will eventually run out sometime.