Siblings from two rival families are set on a collision course when the father that linked them both dies. Set in the rural backwaters of Arkansas, director Jeff Nichols' first feature tells the story of the alcoholic Cleaman Hayes (Michael Abbott Jr.) who, after marrying Nicole (Natalie Canerday), fathers three sons, Son (Michael Shannon), Kid (Barlow Jacobs) and Boy (Douglas Ligon), only to abandon them to their poverty-stricken fate. After getting himself straight and starting a successful business, Cleaman marries again, this time fathering four more boys, on whom he showers the affection denied to his first sons. With Cleaman's death, both families finally unite at the funeral, where the bitterness about the treatment they received leads Son and his brothers into a fight that soon develops into a blood feud.