Doctor Michael Reynolds (Woody Harrelson) is content with his job, home, wife and daughter. When he diagnoses 16-year-old Brandon 'Blue' Monroe (Jon Seda) as suffering from sarcoma, with only weeks to live, he is reluctant to transfer him to a publicly-funded hospital. However, Blue takes Reynolds hostage at gunpoint, forcing him to drive them out into the desert to seek a Nevajo healing place where he believes he will find a cure. Over the length of the journey, with the police in hot pursuit, the two men begin to forge a bond of understanding and compassion.