Michael Winterbottom directs this graphically violent thriller based on the novel by Jim Thompson. Casey Affleck stars as Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford, a pillar of the community in the small Texas town of Central City. However, Ford is not quite the upstanding citizen he appears to be, as becomes apparent after he is ordered to evict local prostitute Joyce Lakeland (Jessica Alba) and ends up embroiled in a torrid affair with her. When his fiance Amy (Kate Hudson) becomes suspicious, the consequences are bloody and brutal as the dark secrets of Ford's past are finally brought to light.

California 1860 and prospector Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan) has made a fortune in gold and is now running Kingdom Come, a small town built in the heart of the Sierra mountains. He wants to turn the town into a thriving city and to this end he asks Dalglish (Wes Bentley), an engineer plotting the course of the Pacific Railroad Expedition, to survey the surrounding area. But then Dillon's wife (Nastassja Kinski) and twenty-year-old daughter (Sarah Polley), both of whom he had traded for his goldmine years before, arrive in town asking for help. Dillon is overcome with guilt, and leaves his mistress Lucia (Milla Jovovich) in order to seek his wife's forgiveness. Lucia herself then takes up with Dalglish, who tells Dillon that the railroad will not be passing through his town, thereby causing the increasingly-unhinged prospector to reach for his rifle....