Nat is driving on the interstate with his two young daughters in the back seat when a car drives by and an unknown man shoots one of the girls dead for no reason. Nat's life is shattered. He becomes obsessed with finding the killers, assaults two men, kills one and goes to jail, is left by his wife, and grows old estranged from his other daughter. We see the action first through Nat's eyes, then via Brautigan, the cop in charge of the investigation, and finally from the perspective of the remaining daughter Margo. The deconstructed narrative echoes the chaos within Nat and emphasizes the fact that the characters are out of tune with one another, which is the meaning of the original title.