The police have three bookies under surveillance, but they escape and set up shop elsewhere. By chance, one of the police finds them; instead of turning them in, he demands money that his brother, now a suicide, had lost to them. An odd guy named Leon (John Turturro), not entirely compus mentus, knows one of the bookies, brings them a tip on a sure thing, and they bet the farm. Meanwhile, Leon has befriended a kid in the next apartment whose mom is abused by her husband, who himself is carrying on some mysterious thievery. The cop, the bookies, the thief, his wife, and Leon's mistakes and good heart all come together in an ending with murder and money.