Maggie Gilkeson (Cate Blanchett) is a young woman who is raising her two daughters in the middle of the New Mexican wilderness. When her oldest daughter Lily (Evan Rachel Wood) is kidnapped by a psychopathic killer, Maggie is forced to re-unite with her long-estranged father (Tommy Lee Jones) to rescue Lily. The killer and his brutal cult of desperados have kidnapped Lily and several other teenage girls, leaving a trail of death and horror across the desolate landscape of the American Southwest. Maggie and her father are in a race against time to catch up with the kidnappers and save her daughter, before they cross the Mexican border and disappear forever.