Dixon, a forty-two year old father and husband, is a Dairy Queen manager who is smuggling stolen kids' meal toys across a Texan border. His wife, Trish, warns him not to go, but ultimately relents, offering to pack ice for his bruised knuckles. Dixon points out that the earnings from the toys will support hospital costs for their fifteen-year-old daughter, Casey, who has been unconscious in bed for over 24 hours. As Dixon drives, he thinks fondly of Casey; her love for hunting birds; her sweetness. He replays her slow descent into crime and drug addiction over the past year. Two days ago, Casey didn't come back from school; Dixon hunted for her all day, driving everywhere, feeling desperate. At the Sarita checkpoint, Dixon is closely questioned, but ultimately let go. When he meets Cornbread and Moose, the men he is selling the toys to, the deal goes wrong; Moose becomes upset; he knocks Dixon unconscious and steals his watch, phone, pistol, and money. Dixon flashes back to the moment he finally found Casey, sleeping next to two naked men in a squalid trap house, surrounded by condoms and high on glue. He wraps Casey in a blanket and takes her out; then, blind with rage, he beats the two men (Shawn Milford and his brother) bloody, bruising his knuckles. When Dixon regains consciousness, he drives home with extreme difficulty. On the porch, Trish tells him that Casey escaped while she was gone, having climbed out the window with outside assistance. Trish offers to run him a bath and make him food. Dixon accepts. While she is in the kitchen, he grabs his gun and sneaks out of the house.