In Monroe, Tennessee, Hank Deerfield, an aging warrior, gets a call that his son, just back from 18 months' fighting in Iraq, is missing from his base. Hank drives to Fort Rudd, New Mexico, to search. Within a day, the charred and dismembered body of his son is found on the outskirts of town. Deerfield pushes himself into the investigation, marked by jurisdictional antagonism between the Army and local police. Working mostly with a new detective, Emily Sanders, Hank seems to close in on what happened. Major smuggling? A drug deal gone awry? Credit card slips, some photographs, and video clips from Iraq may hold the key. If Hank gets to the truth, what will it tell him?

Andy Sargentee is a decent guy and the town's favorite failure: an unemployable dreamer whose ex's husband's wealth intimidates Andy to such an extent he does little with his teen son. Andy's new idea is for Butterface Fields to be the first town to band together to make the first full-length feature amateur adult film. He recruits five regulars at Floyd's Bar to contribute $2000 each. They get the kid at the video store, whose camcorder is constantly on, to be the cinematographer. The pal they all call "Some Idiot" volunteers to be writer-director. Otis becomes producer. Now, can they find actors, and especially, women? Can a pornography project give Andy self-respect?

Rosie (40), a divorced mother, produces the has-been TV comedy You Go Girl. Her boss no longer allows the show to tackle any vaguely controversial subjects, so it seems doomed. Then she meets at an audition Adam Perl (29), an attractive, spontaneously funny, single actor. She successfully casts him, which revives the show's ratings. She also dates him, but her pathological insecurity, focused on their age difference, compromises the relationship. That culminates when she suspects him of infidelity with the show's star, and the studio gives those two their own sitcom.