In the 1970s, Tommy Rissen-a shy, poetry-loving student-suddenly finds himself an up-and-coming front man for a rock group, Roc. But Roc's meteoric rise is interrupted by the sudden disappearance of Tommy, the poet turned songwriter and singer. Love, drug abuse, and a daring offer from a United States marshal lead to murder and mayhem in a trail from Los Angeles to a sleepy coastal Mexican village. After helping US Marshal Tano Martinez in a sting operation to entrap a Mexican drug lord known as El Piranha, Tommy enters the U.S. government's witness protection program. But Tommy's newfound serenity is cut short by El Piranha's gruesome quest for revenge-ending in a tense showdown between US marshals and the Mexican cartel.