Mickey Prohaska is a small time insurance agent living in Wisconsin. He has grown apart from his wife, Jo Ann and is hoping that his business which he is jump-starting will help patch things up. Unfortunately, things with Jo Ann aren't as good as he makes out to be: she has separated with him. Financially, things are worse: Mickey has a gambling habit and during a recent trip to a casino, he lost his wallet after a one night stand with a prostitute.
Growing desperate, Mickey looks for ways to earn money and runs into the elderly Gorvy. Gorvy is only interested in Mickey's insurance policy because his TV is broken, thus, Gorvy enlists Michael to fix it.
One day, while at Gorvy's house, Mickey goes rooting around in the old man's attic and finds a violin. Conveniently, a violin appraiser calls in and determines that the violin could fetch a tidy sum of $25,000. Mickey senses an opportunity and leaps in, saying that he'll handle the cash.
From there, it all goes downhill for Mickey; he reluctantly joins forces with a psychotic ex-con, Randy, who steals the violin in order to receive the cash payout. Mickey is slowly drawn into a twisted, immoral world that he can't seem to escape from.
Starring: Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, Billy Crudup, David Harbour, Bob Balaban, Lea Thompson, Alan Johnson and Peter Moore.
Directed by: Jill Sprecher