Freddy Gale (Nicholson) has been tormented for the five years following the death of his daughter Emily. Once a devoted husband and father, he is now an alcoholic who spends his nights hanging out in strip clubs and sleeping with prostitutes. Now the drunk driver who killed her, John Booth (Morse), is released from prison. Freddy immediately reveals to his ex-wife Mary (Huston) that he is going to kill Booth. She begs him not to, and they get into an altercation that ends with her new husband throwing him out of the house.