Brad Whitewood Sr. is a career criminal and the leader of his family's gang of rural back-door criminals. The film chronicles the intersection of Sr's criminal enterprises with his son, Brad Whitewood Jr., who starts out as a floundering, out-of-work teenager living in near squalor with his mother, grandmother, brother and mother's boyfriend. When his father shows up in a flashy car with a pocket full of hundred dollar bills, Brad Jr. formulates a desire to join his father's life of crime. At first Jr. starts a gang with his brother, Tommy, fencing their stolen goods through Brad Sr.'s criminal network. As a result of entanglements with his 16-year-old girlfriend, Terry, Brad Jr. seeks full entry into his father's gang, but after witnessing a murder he tries to back out. Eventually Brad Jr's gang is arrested while attempting to steal tractors, and the FBI and local law enforcement attempt to lean on Brad Jr. to get him to turn evidence on his father's gang.