- On the run from the Chicago Mob, a down on his luck trumpet player hitchhiking to Hollywood falls into murder, money and mayhem with a mysterious femme fatale.
- The film opens with a man and woman driving through the desert in a 1966 Oldsmobile Delta 88. Dom asks 'Top of the world?' and answers his own question with 'Let's go back to the beginning'.
Going back one week in time, Dom is show with his friends at party to celebrate one of them going to prison. Returning home later that night, Dom is surprised in his apartment by the Gaglione Brothers, a couple of mobsters to whom he money for gambling debts. After being threatened to pay up, Dom elects to flee, taking only his trumpet and a bag.
Following a flashback to his girlfriend, Maddie, stating that she is moving to San Diego for a fresh start, Dom sets out to meet her, electing to hitchhike in order to 'stay off the grid' and ends up getting lost in the desert. He encounters a stranger by a campfire named Barkley. Barkley proceeds to drink and take hallucinogenics while speaking of god and playing a solo game of Russian roulette. When Barkley finally loses a game, Dom takes his car and flees, ending act one.
Act two opens with Dom picking up a hitchhiker we recognize as the woman in the opening sequence, Veronica. Later, at a coffee shop, Veronica reveals she knew Barkley and accuses Dom of murder. Under threat of exposure, Dom agrees to continue with Veronica to a hotel. Before going out, Veronica retires to the bathroom where she checks her phone and discovers threatening messages from someone named Boudreaux. The next morning, Veronica reveals to Dom her involvement with Barkley in a scheme to defraud investors that involves illegal fracking wells. She convinces him that the plan can continue by Dom impersonating the dead Barkley. After Dom is drilled by Veronica in the nuances of the fracking industry, the plan succeeds and Dom gets the money. Dom returns to Veronica with the money, but when she makes sexual advances on him, he brings up his for love for Maddie and flees the motel room.
Dom returns to the motel the next morning, noting the presence of Barkley's Delta 88 in the parking lot. After using the lobby phone to call his friend Victor in prison, Dom is surprised to receive a call from the Gaglione Brothers letting him know they know his location. He returns to the motel room to discover Veronica is gone and is surprised that she has left his share of the loot behind. Exiting the motel, he sees Veronica has taken the Delta 88. Act 2 ends when a truck pulls up and a hunter gets out, a man we later learn is Boudreaux, the man sending Veronica threatening texts. Dom and Boudreaux make eye contact before Dom walks off and Boudreaux heads into the motel.
Act three opens with Dom buying a car and driving to San Diego. As he arrives at Maddie's apartment, we see Veronica in another car. After Dom and Maddie get reacquainted, he leaves to get cigarettes. As he gets in his car, we glimpse Veronica in her car. Later, Dom returns to the apartment, stating he'd gotten lost again, before noticing there is damage in the apartment. Entering the bedroom, he discovers Maddie is dead. Through a series of flashbacks, we hear how Veronica found and killed Maddie. Distraught at the death of his girlfriend, certain he will be accused of another murder he didn't commit, Dom flees, only to finally spot Veronica in her car. Upon discovering Veronica has been murdered, Dom encounters the hunter Boudreaux, still with Veronica's blood on his arm. After Boudreaux drives off, Dominic jumps in his jeep and starts to drive away. We hear one of the Gaglione Brothers say they are going to fix things and that Dom will owe them a favor.
Following the credits roll, we are told it is 18 months ago and watch the initial meeting of Veronica and Boudreaux.
The film is built around the plot device in media res, starting in the middle and then flashing to the beginning. But this is still not the beginning of the movie as, following the end credits roll, we see Veronica and Boudreaux meet 18 months earlier.
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