After Manny (Lou Diamond Phillips) is released from jail, where he was serving a five-year sentence, he travels back to his hometown in search of a job. The fact that Manny is autistic complicates the hunt but he finally lands a job at the front desk of the Hotel El Cortez. But things don't stay quiet for long. Manny soon finds himself involved in a tangled web involving a police officer, a gold prospector, a drug dealer and the drug dealer's money-hungry girlfriend.