Based on the novel the late N. Richard Nash (who also wrote the screenplay before he died in 2000), would see Clint Eastwood as a damaged-goods horse trainer who's just been ignominiously put out to pasture by his feckless boss. In exchange for some retirement money, the broken - and broke - horseman agrees to kidnap the boss 11-year-old son from his rich Mexican ex-wife. Things take an unexpected turn, however, when the ex-wife is all too glad to be rid of her juvenile delinquent.