Rock singer John Mellencamp makes his screen and directorial debut in this story by "Lonesome Dove" author, Larry McMurtry. The story finds Mellencamp character, Bud Parks, as a country music star whose meanderings and philandering has thrown his life into turmoil. Returning to his native Indiana to try to reestablish a normal life. Instead he takes up with an old lover (Kay Lenz), ignoring his loving wife (Mariel Hemingway), and duplicating the lifestyle of his womanizing father (Claude Akins).