Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte) is sheriff of a Podunk New Hampshire town, and he's not doing well on the job. Debilitated from years of abuse by his malevolent father (James Coburn), Wade is an abject, drunken failure on the job and family fronts. But when a local businessman is mysteriously killed during a deer hunt, Wade sees the case as a path to redemption. Coburn won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and Nolte was nominated for Best Actor.