In Los Angeles, ex-cons Troy, Mad Dog, and Diesel are hired by an eccentric mob boss to kidnap a baby and hold it for a large ransom. When the abduction goes awry, the men find themselves on the run from the mob and the cops, vowing to stay out of prison at all costs.

The bumbling antiheroes of this gleefully unhinged crime comedy find the American dream more out of reach than ever before. They all have their twisted reasons for chasing it anyway. In the way these determined fools catastrophically bungle their mission, Paul Schrader finds both humor and pathos.