With his mother dead and his father, Marty (Bruce Altman), busy at work, Howie (Paul Franklin Dano) feels adrift in his New York suburb. He and his friend Gary (Billy Kay) spend their time burglarizing their neighbors' homes -- until they make the mistake of robbing the house of Big John (Brian Cox), a macho former Marine who is also an unrepentant pedophile. He propositions Howie, who declines, but the two eventually develop an unlikely and dangerous friendship.