Hank Mitchell (Bill Paxton) is a humble hardware store manager who, along with his simple brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) and their friend Lou, stumble upon $4.4 million in the smouldering wreck of a crashed plane. They reveal the discovery to Hank's wife Sarah (Bridget Fonda) and she agrees that they should not let the authorities know about the money, at least until the plane is found by the police. However, an FBI agent is already on the trail, and the money rapidly becomes a source of suspicion, greed, and murder.