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Two hit men kill Ed "Eddie" Macklin outside his farmhouse. Meanwhile, Eddie’s brother, Earl Macklin, is released from prison. Earl’s girlfriend, Bett Harrow, picks him up and they check into a motel for the night. Bett tries to dissuade Earl from going to Eddie’s house, but when he insists, she informs Earl that his brother is dead. Later that night, Frank Orlandi, an assassin, breaks into Earl and Bett’s room, but Earl ambushes him from behind the door and steals his gun. After Earl shoots him once in the head, Orlandi admits that Jake Menner sent him. Unfamiliar with the name, Earl demands further information, and Orlandi identifies Jim Sinclair as the person who gave the orders to kill Earl. At a payphone in the parking lot, Earl forces Orlandi to call Menner at his hotel suite and lie that Earl is now dead. As Earl and Bett flee the motel, Earl learns that Bett was threatened by Menner and told to deliver Earl to the motel that evening. Apologizing for setting him up, Bett reveals several cigarette burns on her arm, and Earl drives to Menner’s hotel, where he holds up a guard, demanding information about the men playing poker inside Menner’s room. Earl bursts in and holds up Menner and his fellow poker players, demanding all the money in their wallets. Menner warns Earl that his gang, “The Outfit,” killed Eddie and now plans to kill Earl because the brothers held up a bank that was owned by the Outfit. Unfazed, Earl shoots Menner’s hand in retaliation for Bett’s cigarette burns and leaves. Earl attends Eddie’s funeral, and, afterward, gives Eddie’s girlfriend, Alma, $24,000, a portion of the money he stole from the poker game. Alma rejects the cash and blames Earl for drawing Eddie back into robbery after he’d quit. Alma tells Earl that his “time is used up,” and suggests he renounce his life of crime. At a bar, Earl reunites with an old friend, Cody, and admits that he and Eddie unknowingly provoked the Outfit by robbing their bank. Earl asks for Cody’s help in robbing Jim Sinclair, the member of the Outfit who ordered Orlandi to kill him, and stipulates that Bett must come along as their getaway driver. After Cody agrees, he and Earl buy guns and ammunition from Amos Hopper. In the evening, the men rob Sinclair’s restaurant, and Bett runs over two of Sinclair’s henchmen as Cody and Earl jump into the car. Eager to change vehicles, Cody and Earl visit the home of a man named Chemey, who fixes up stolen cars with his brother Buck. As Earl negotiates the purchase of a car, Buck’s wife attempts to seduce Cody to no avail, and later accuses him of attempting to rape her. In turn, Buck threatens Cody with a tire iron while the wife calls their attack dog on him. Earl holds Chemey at gunpoint and warns that he will shoot Buck if he follows them. Back on the road in the new car, Cody talks to Earl about the diner he runs in Oregon and his desire to quit being a robber altogether. Later, Cody dresses as a postman and Earl as a janitor to break into a finance office owned by the Outfit and steal money from the safe. At a horse auction, Earl tracks down Mailer, the head of the Outfit, and demands $250,000 in small bills as a payment for his brother’s murder. Mailer agrees and warns Earl not to come near him again; however, when Earl and Cody go to a church building to retrieve the cash, they are swarmed by members of the Outfit, and Earl trips the fire alarm to serve as a distraction as he and Cody escape. Soon after, Cody and Earl rob a gambling establishment run by the Outfit. At a motel, Bett criticizes Earl for this way of life, and he slaps her across the face multiple times. However, they kiss and make up, and the following day, Bett happily serves coffee to Cody and Earl in the car as they drive to the next job. A highway patrol car pulls them over, and as Earl notices a second car approaching with Menner inside, he declares that the police are actually hit men. Cody and Earl shoot the officers and the men inside Menner’s car as it drives past, causing it to catch fire. Driving away, Earl realizes that Bett was shot dead in the gunfight, and, later, arranges for her funeral. One day, Cody surveys Mailer’s home from the outside before returning with Earl the same evening. They hold up two of Mailer’s guards outside the premises and take their car, using it to gain entry. Earl and Cody sneak inside the house past several other guards and dogs, and Cody installs a bomb underneath the kitchen table. Upstairs, Cody holds Mailer’s wife, Rita, hostage in the master bedroom, and is shot down by Mailer. Spotting Earl in the hallway, Mailer asks if they can make a deal, but Earl refuses, shooting him dead. As the bomb goes off in the kitchen, Earl helps Cody downstairs. Mailer’s guards approach, wielding guns, but Earl convinces them to cease fire as they are now officially unemployed. Cody worries that he won’t make it out alive, and, hearing sirens, tells Earl to abandon him. However, as the authorities approach, Cody declares that he is ready to get up. Downstairs, Earl dons a doctor’s coat, pretending to be part of the paramedic team that has arrived, and ushers Cody into an ambulance. With only Cody inside, Earl drives the ambulance away from the house, and the two men laugh at their triumph.

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