Delilah Ashford Potts (Kate Capshaw) runs her cattle ranch with a sultry blend of strength and seduction. Scores of men work the grounds, but only one is chosen each night to share her bed. It’s an unspoken arrangement in a place where Mrs. Potts’s rules are scrupulously obeyed … until a drifter looking for work shows up on Mrs. Potts’s door.

With his own share of secrets, Clay Hewitt (Vince Vaughn) sees the world as a place where a man is a man, a woman is a woman and the relation between the two is well-defined. Though initially drawn in by the widow’s frank sensuality, it is the spectre of her silent son Flyboy (Jeremy Davies) that captivates Clay. A withdrawn, emotionally-crippled man-child, Flyboy’s subservience and whispered-about past barely scratch the surface of the dark places where his soul has been buried all these years. With the help of Kitty (Ashley Judd), a free-spirited local girl, Clay reaches out to him, encouraging Flyboy to take his first steps toward independence, and uncovering the long-buried secrets that will change all of their fates.