When Dallas' pool-hustling father abandons his family, Dallas takes to his bicycle and goes on the road after him. No stranger to the bar scene or the world of pool hustling himself, Dallas is determined to confront his father and bring him home. Enter Joe Haley, a drifter wrestling with a past he'd rather forget. Feeling responsible for the boy's safety, Joe reluctantly becomes the boy's protector. From the pool halls of Louisiana, through fights with bar drunks, visits to ex-wives, and threats from loan sharks hot on his father's trail, Dallas and Joe push each other's buttons, but ultimately forge a sort of father-son relationship of their own.