In this fact-based film, Emmett Foley (Gary Oldman) returns from Korea a hero, but when he cannot find gainful employment outside of the service, he decides the best way to provide for his wife, Mae (Frances McDormand), is to act crazy enough to get shot by the police, thereby providing her with insurance money. Instead, he's captured and placed in the Chattahoochee prison for the mentally ill, where, with fellow inmate Walker Benson (Dennis Hopper), he begins to fight for better conditions.