Once a successful rodeo rider, J.W. Coop (Cliff Robertson, who also directed) has just been released from jail after a 10-year sentence for writing a bounced check and fighting with a sheriff. The predictable culture of jail, however, was easy for Coop, compared to his having literally to "get back on the horse," and begin anew. He ambles around a radically altered America with his countercultural female sidekick, Bean (Christina Ferrare), and tries to campaign seriously for a shot at a rodeo championship. As the demons of his past, exemplified by his disturbed mother, threaten to hamper his comeback, Coop faces harder choices than ever before.