Austin, an earnest screenwriter on the verge of success, is working on a script he has sold to a Hollywood producer while house-sitting for his mother in LA. When his brother Lee a drifter and petty thief decides to stop by, he pitches his own idea for a movie and convinces the producer to ditch Austin's love story for his own trashy Western tale. Now they must work together to secure the deal. But with mistrust and jealousy bubbling under the surface and the heat of a Californian night melting away their inhibitions, their own flaws threaten to get in the way.