Henry Marsh meets with his hired hitman, holding a briefcase of money. When Henry doesn't drop the briefcase quickly enough after the hitman asks, he knocks Henry out with a punch, takes his briefcase and Rolex, and disappears. 

In their San Francisco home, his wife, Sue, watches Henry stumble into the house, completely inebriated and with a broken nose, and chastises him for trampling on her painstakingly planted flowers. She feels both furious and vindictively pleasured from seeing him "so disgraced." Their teenage daughter, Jaime, and son, Todd, come out to observe; Henry calls Jaime's outfit slutty and yells at her to go to her room. Sue knocks Henry out with a paperweight to "shut him up" and drags him into the bathroom. Two days later, she notices a beige Pontiac following her.

Mickey, the hitman, grabs dinner with his daughter, whom he loves, but feels awkward around; he's acutely aware that he's forgotten how to interact with her or her mother. Afterwards, he stares at a photo of Sue, and feels compelled to "make good on his (wasted) life" instead of killing her. He resents her husband more, anyways, with his wealth and ostentatious clothing. Still, he tails Sue while she shops all day, and follows her home. He ruminates on his prior career as a police officer; officers are allowed to do all sorts of suspect things, but the uniform allows them to justify it as moral. Now that he's not an officer, his actions have no clear moral quality attached to them. Henry checks into a hotel for three days in order to think about what to do now that his hitman has deserted him. He drinks profusely and ruminates on his broken marriage. 

Every night, Jaime sneaks out to smoke cigarettes alone; tonight, she ruminates on how the world is a "matrix of power relationships" and vows never to become crazy or spiritually dead like her parents. She spots the beige Pontiac across the street, realizing it's been there for multiple days now, and that there's someone behind the wheel. Shaken, she hurries home and tells her mother.

With cold clarity, Henry decides to "take matters into his own hands." While leaving the hotel, he grabs a metal poker from the fireplace.

Micky has been staked out in front of Henry's home for days, surviving on cheeseburgers. He's given up on trying to kill Sue. He suspects he may be subconsciously trying to protect her from her husband, who he's worried might try to kill her himself. Feeling ashamed of the sins from his past life, he resolves to travel somewhere far away and start over. Just as he starts driving away, Henry's car comes careening onto the lawn. As Henry staggers out, waving the poker, Micky grabs his long-retired police revolver and points it at him, hoping it still works.