20世纪初，Bill（理查·基尔 Richard Gere 饰）本来是工厂里的一名工人，因为打架他只能离开了工厂，带着女友Abby（布鲁克·亚当斯 Brooke Adams 饰）和妹妹Linda离开了芝加哥，在德克萨斯州的一个麦田上找到了一份收割麦子的工作。Bill和Abby伪装成兄妹。一位年轻的农民（山姆·夏普德 Sam Shepard 饰），也是农场的主人被Abby吸引，同时，他发现自己患了绝症。为了窃取农场主的财产，Bill让Abby嫁给了那农场主。不料在日复一日的相处中，Abby也对农场主产生了爱情。另一方面，Abby和Bill不寻常的来往也让农场主极为不快。于是Bill离开了麦田。过了一段时间，Bill又回来了，农场主终于忍无可忍，端着枪走向了Bill...... 本片获奥斯卡最佳摄影奖，并获最佳服装、最佳原声等提名。
该片改编自小说，是一部动作片，讲述了隐退的杀手照顾女中学生后发生的事情。
Brij Mohan (36), a hosiery shop owner in a busy Delhi market, desperately wants to change his life. He is fed up of his ball-crusher wife and mounting debts. In order to escape his wretched life, he changes his appearance and adopts a new identity as Amar Sethi, but ends up committing a botched up murder. He runs off with his young girlfriend, hopeful of making a new beginning. Instead, as luck would have it, he finds himself trapped in a web of his own Karma.