Austin, an Ivy League-educated, hopeful screenwriter, has returned to his mother's home outside L.A., intent on selling his latest script to a Hollywood producer. But Austin's world is turned upside down when his older brother Lee, a crude petty thief, shows up unexpectedly and tries to sell his story - a "true" American western - to the intrigued producer. As the two estranged men wrangle over their screenplays, bicker, get drunk, and trash the house, they soon come to realize that deep down they may not be so different after all.