Writer Marc Viglietti, known as Vig, suffers in his day job at a museum of carriages and carts while he dreams of fame and fortune from the unintentionally humorous vampire westerns he can't stop penning. Faced with eviction, Vig fools Marsha, his chief foil in the local writing community and the author of unsuccessful romance novels, into believing he's just gotten out of the hospital after a bout with pneumonia. Marsha gives Vig a thousand dollars to stop his eviction because of his five years voluntarily babysitting her daughter Bailey, who Vig genuinely likes. Vile Vig then brags that Marsha is crushing on him. Within weeks of getting the money, Vig discovers Bailey needs expensive dental work, but Vig has spent the thousand on car repairs to join an old coot Vig met at the museum on a search for the lost gold of Cochise. Will Vig's years of friendship with Marsha and Bailey finally wrench him in the general direction of decency?