Howard Spence, a washed-up Western movie star, uses alcohol, drugs, and young women to escape from the pain of his life. One day he suddenly flees the set of his latest Western on horseback and goes to visit his mother in Nevada. She tells him that he might have a grown son in Montana, where he once had a fling with a local waitress. Howard sets out to meet his son with an insurance agent from his abandoned film in pursuit.