Dess Rose is a brutal, short-tempered, and very angry young man who decides to leave his unhappy life in New York and travel out to Vegas with his equally dysfunctional cousin Gary, a professional gambler. Gary, however, is in serious debt to some underworld figures, and must earn a bundle at the tables if he`s to stay alive; the two work out an elaborate system for beating the system at the casinos--which may or may not stave off disaster.