Sailor (Nicolas Cage) and Lula (Laura Dern) are two lovers struggling to remain together even when fate seems intent on keeping them apart.
In this case, fate is Lula's mother, Marietta Fortune; a desperate woman who hates Sailor and will do anything to keep him away from her daughter.
After Sailor is released from prison for murdering a man in self-defence, he and Lula embark on a sex-filled, rocking road trip, aware all the time that they are being hunted by Marietta's cronies.