There's Leon, a hapless bass player who can embroil himself in trouble just by getting out of bed in the morning. His would-be girlfriend, Jennifer, is living with Arnett, the town's most dangerous thug--and hoping Leon will help her poison him. There's Arnett himself, a psychopath for the ages, charming and deranged. His mirror image, a singler-songwriter named Jonas, has his own moral issues, though at least he's trying to be a good man. And then there's Jennifer, the vulnerable yet strong woman struggling to survive the violence that have surrounded her since birth. In the mine-riddled town of Bordon, Virginia, a group of lost souls are bound together by alcohol, small-time crime, and music. Leon is a lovesick bass player with a broken hand and a belief that next time-next time-he'll definitely get it right; Jennifer is the bright-but-battered waitress who can't quite escape the orbit of Arnett, the local drug dealer. When Jennifer convinces Leon to murder Arnett so she can finally be free, a dark chain of events is set in motion, its violence echoing the pain and misery that shape their fractured lives.