Luke and Nicole, a young couple with a baby, leave Detroit to start a promising new life in Pomona, California. During their long cross-country drive they make a stop in a Texas town at the Mexican border where Dean, a low-life gas-station owner, steals their cash. They’re stuck, with just a few days before Luke’s new job starts. In need of quick cash, Nicole gets work as a waitress, while Luke takes the only job he can find and hooks up with Dean to smuggle Mexican workers across the border under the nose of the border patrol. Things start taking a turn for the worse when Captain Elias starts closing in on Dean, who, to make matters worse, has set his sights on Nicole …