In 1990, Frank and Jerry Lee Flannigan, brothers who drift aimlessly, attempt to escape their hopeless lives through their creativity and excessive drinking. When Jerry Lee strikes and kills a child in a hit-and-run accident, the two immediately pack up their belongings and leave town. However, Jerry Lee abandons his brother at a diner, destroys the car, and steals his sometime girlfriend Polly's pistol. Jerry Lee loses his nerve before he can commit suicide and instead shoots himself in the leg, which was already amputated at knee. Subsequent flashbacks reveal that the boys' mother died when they were young, and, with their father missing, the two set off on their own; Jerry Lee's leg is injured when they attempt to stow away on a train.