Harvard graduate James Averill (Kris Kristofferson) is the president of prosperous Jackson County, Wyo., as soon as a battle erupts between your area's poverty-stricken immigrants and its own wealthy cattle farmers. The politically connected ranch owners fight the immigrants together with the help of Nathan Champion (Christopher Walken), a mercenary competing with Averill for its love of regional madam Ella Watson (Isabelle Huppert). As the struggle escalates, Champion and Averill begin to question their decisions.