Lumber salesman Earl Morrison, struggling to survive in the current economic crisis, is sent on a business trip, where he accidentally kills a dog. In the process of burying the body, he digs up an ancient box of coins and jewels. Suddenly rich, he finds that his life only changes superficially as he continues a painful, unsatisfactory relationship with his semi-estranged father. Meanwhile, alcoholic psychopath Liam C. Griggs terrorizes people with a gun and young, out-of-work inventor Armen Smythe, after just having been fired by an obnoxious, sadistic boss, tries with little success to find work and pursues a sexy college girl he's obsessed with.