Claudie, a young French woman, inherits her uncle's property in Algeria, much to the disappointment of her scheming cousins Diane and Manuel. On the ferry she meets and falls for Pierre, an idle young man who has squandered his inheritance and is on his way to beg from Christian, his rich but rough-and-ready uncle, who owns a neighbouring farm to Claudie's. Made to work on the farm by Christian as a loan condition, Pierre is soon a changed man, and proposes to Claudie. But when his Arab friend Zoubir invites the Europeans on a hunting party, Diane and Manuel see their chance to move against their cousin.
老头子Woody（布鲁斯·邓恩 Bruce Dern 饰）收到一份广告，上面说他中了一百万大奖，对此他深信不疑，更决定从蒙大拿的比灵斯市步行到内布拉斯加的林肯市去领奖。他的妻子和两个儿子多次劝阻未果，最终小儿子David（威尔·福特 Will Forte 饰）决定开车载着他到林肯去领奖。去林肯的路上他们经过了Woody的老家，便决定去拜访那些久未谋面的亲戚们。Woody一家在那里短暂停留的几天里，整个小镇的人都知道Woody中了大奖，Woody顿时成了镇上的红人，接踵而来的是他的那些老债主们。David也渐渐了解了Woody那些不为人知的过去，对自己的父亲有了新的了解...
《内德的步枪》是三部曲的最终章，前两部分别是《傻子亨利》(Henry Fool)和《国家密码》(Fay Grim)，为以另类眼光看美国社会的边缘提供了一个恰到好处的结尾。
在这部电影中，Henry（Thomas Jay Ryan 饰，《傻子亨利》片中角色）和Fay（Parker Posey 饰，《国家密码》片中角色）也出现了，但他们变成了一幅画像，慈爱地看着他们的儿子Ned，Ned今年十八岁，最近才刚从证人保护计划中释放。尽管基督教徒从他的养父-一个教堂牧师手中接过他抚养，但Ned还是设定了报仇的目标：杀死他的父亲，因为那个人毁了他母亲的生活。当这个严肃又端庄的年轻人开始他的复仇之旅，他很快就发现自己进入了典型的哈特利式的异端分子的团伙中……
