Bernie's life is on a downward spiral since he lost his job as a journalist; his fiction writing won't pay the rent and his wife has had enough of him. But life takes a real turn for the worse when he is accused of planning to hold-up a big money poker game and organising an armoured car robbery. Suddenly, Bernie's life seems unrecognisable. Then he is approached by Mr Gussling, a businessman just returned from Argentina, whose wife Claire has been kidnapped. Gussling asks Bernie to make the ransom payoff on his behalf and, desperate for money, Bernie accepts. All he wants to do is trade the ransom money for the kidnap victim and get back to his old life...or does he?