Narrowly escaping the drug runners, he sends his wife Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald) to safety. A taciturn man, Moss neither reveals to his wife, nor to audience, what his plans are.

Not realizing that a hit-man, Anton Chigurh (played with icy menace by Javier Bardem), an amoral pit bull of a psycopath, has begun tracking him, Moss begins a journey of harrowing near misses and inevitable confrontation.

Tracking them both, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), nearing retirement and nostalgic for the old days, has grown weary of the mounting violence brought about by the burgeoning drug trade.

Independent and resourceful, Llewelyn Moss remains unintimidated by the implacable Chigurh. Both men stick to their convictions until the end, as does Sheriff Bell, but no one remains unchanged.

Many people discover what a man of conviction can accomplish including Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson) the brash bounty hunter hired by a business man (Stephen Root) to intervene. Nothing can stop a man of his word.

Part drama, part action adventure, the film more than studies evil, it meditates on it.