John Wintergreen (played by Blake) is a motorcycle cop who patrols the rural Arizona highways with his partner "Zipper" (Billy (Green) Bush). Wintergreen is a rookie looking to be transferred to homicide. When he is informed by Crazy Willie (Elisha Cook) of an apparent suicide, Wintergreen believes the case is actually a murder. Detective Harve Poole (Mitchell Ryan) agrees, and arranges for Wintergreen to be transferred to homicide to help with the case.
Wintergreen has gotten his wish, but his joy is short-lived. He begins increasingly to identify with the hippies whom the other officers, including Detective Poole, are endlessly harassing. Workplace politics cause him to be quickly demoted back to Traffic Enforcement. The final straw comes when Poole discovers that Wintergreen has been sleeping with his girlfriend Jolene (Jeannine Riley).
Despite being demoted, Wintergreen is able to solve the murder. Nonetheless, a second tragedy strikes when Wintergreen is forced to shoot Zipper in self-defense. As the film ends, Wintergreen is alone and back on his old beat, when he runs into a hippie that Zipper was needlessly harassing near the beginning of the film. A misunderstanding over a forgotten driver’s license sets up the film’s tragic conclusion.