The film was inspired by the real-life killing in Texas of a teenager, Esequiel Hernandez Jr, by United States Marines during a military operation near the United States–Mexico border[8] as well as the novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, which contains the same plot premise and challenges encountered in the film.

Melquiades Estrada, a Mexican illegal immigrant working in Texas as a cowboy, shoots at a coyote which is menacing his small flock of goats.

A nearby United States Border Patrol officer, Mike Norton, thinks he is being attacked and shoots, killing Melquiades.

Perkins ties up Norton's wife, Lou Ann, kidnaps him and forces him to dig up Melquiades' body.

Sheriff Belmont realizes that Perkins has kidnapped Norton, and so police officers and the Border Patrol begin to search for them.

The duo encounter a group of Mexican cowboys watching American soap operas on a television hooked up to their pickup truck.

She does visibly react to a photograph Perkins shows her of Melquiades standing behind her and her children, stating that she does "...not want to get in trouble with her husband".

[11][10] The film received generally positive reviews; it currently holds an 85% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus states: "Tommy Lee Jones' directorial debut is both a potent western and a powerful morality tale.