It is about two brothers who, after being forced off their farm in the debt stricken Midwestern United States, become folk heroes when they begin robbing the banks that have been foreclosing on farmers.

Frank Roberts, Sr. and his two young sons are even visited there by Nikita Khrushchev during the Soviet Union premier's tour of the Midwestern United States in 1959.

The farmland worked on by three-generations of Roberts' used to be top-notch, but costs have steadily risen while crop prices have barely budged, so many farmers have been failing.

As the brothers take to the road, becoming thieves, the story of their action at home strikes a chord with neighbors and strangers who offer them shelter or even a hideout when the law's in pursuit.

Terry meets, and falls for, his soulmate, Sally (Penelope Ann Miller); a stripper introduces them to Maxwell, a reporter who wants to tell their story before the law catches up with them.