One summer evening, Texas farmers Sarah and Clem Willets take in a young boy named Arlis Sweeney, who claims to have gotten lost in their wheat field. After everyone has gone to bed, Arlis steals the family’s valuables. When Clem catches him, Arlis’s father, Roy, shoots the couple and their young son dead, leaving the Willets’ infant daughter orphaned in her crib. Years later, Arlis works as a vending machine supplier traveling throughout Texas. One night, he stops by a bar and watches as a bachelor party eagerly anticipates the arrival of a stripper. Before she can begin her routine, however, the stripper vomits on the groom and passes out. The bartender asks Arlis if he can bring the unconscious woman back to his motel and find out where she lives. In the morning, Arlis learns her name is Kay Davies, and takes her to breakfast before dropping her at the bus station. Reluctant to part company, he offers to drive Kay to her friend’s house in Bayview. On the way, Kay reveals she has no friend in Bayview, but is actually married and accepted the stripping job because she was recently robbed and unable to get home. Unbothered by her lies, Arlis continues driving to the Davies’ residence, and Kay is furious to discover that her husband, Reese, has left the house in disarray. A few moments later, a man arrives to pick up pieces of furniture Reese sold without her knowledge. When Reese returns, Kay confronts her husband, who hits her face. He attempts to leave, but Kay holds him at gunpoint until he admits he already lost the furniture money in a poker game. In revenge, Kay loads their upright piano into Arlis’s truck and storms out. Once she sells the piano, she and Arlis continue along his supply route and check into a motel. Kay compliments Arlis on his appearance and notices a small, star-shaped tattoo hidden under his hairline, which his father gave him as a boy. She apologizes for the chaotic circumstances of their meeting, but Arlis insists he likes her. That evening, Kay seduces him, and they make love. In the middle of the night, Arlis answers a knock at the door and sees a young woman named Ginnie standing in the rain. She claims her car has broken down, and Arlis decides to help her even though he recognizes her as a vagrant thief. In the car, he discovers his estranged father, Roy, sitting in the backseat with two bullets in his back. As Arlis tends to his wounds in the motel bathroom, Ginnie warns Kay that all men eventually turn out to be “evil.” Over breakfast, Roy explains that he recruited Ginnie to steal for him after a business partnership went awry. Once the couples part ways, Ginnie drives past the former Willets farmhouse. Roy lies that the property has been haunted ever since a Mexican man murdered the family. When Kay learns that Reese has filed for divorce, she takes Arlis out for a steak lunch to celebrate. Later, while Kay sleeps, Arlis notices she carries a family photograph, and recognizes the Willets as the people in the picture. Kay reveals that she was raised by her aunt and uncle, who claimed her parents and brother died in a car accident. While Arlis is away replenishing his stock, Roy instructs Ginnie to pick up Kay from her motel room and bring her to the Willets house. Ginnie drops hints about their destination to the motel clerk, and Arlis later follows. Once he catches up to them, Roy sends the women outside and tells Arlis he immediately noticed Kay’s resemblance to her dead mother, prompting him to realize she was the abandoned baby. Roy calls his son “stupid” and blames him for blundering the Willets robbery, but Arlis refuses to forgive his father for committing murder. When Roy decides to let his son tell Kay the truth about her parents, Arlis shoots him in the chest. Kay and Ginnie hear the gunshot and run back to the house. Ginnie kisses Roy’s cheek, steals his pocketwatch, and leaves. Returning Kay to the motel, Arlis tells her to stay as long as she needs, but refuses to explain why Roy summoned her to the house. He ends their relationship by telling her he maintains relationships with other women in other cities while he travels. They kiss goodbye, and Arlis drives off into the distance.