Gus Lobel (Clint Eastwood) is a baseball scout. The team he works for thinks he should retire. He asks them to let him do one more scouting job to prove himself. His friend, Pete Klein (John Goodman), asks Gus' estranged daughter, Mickey (Amy Adams), if she could go with him to make sure he's okay as his eyes are failing. The doctor tells Gus he should get his eyes treated, but he insists on doing his scouting assignment, which takes him to North Carolina. Mickey decides to put her work on hold to go with him, and she wants him to explain why he pushed her away. While there, he runs into Johnny (Justin Timberlake), a scout from another team who was a promising player Gus once scouted. Johnny and Mickey take an interest in each other.