Charlie is an ex-professor turned reluctant call-center employee who gets fired on the first day. Distraught at being unable to provide for his daughter Emily and wife Penelope, he accepts when aspiring scam artist Gus presents Charlie with a seemingly snag-free plan to make some cash.
The plan is to blackmail Reverend Smalls, a man of the cloth who's frequently turned up in the company database of visitors to illegal porn sites. Gus plans to extort Reverend Smalls, with the intention of publicly exposing his secret shame should he refuse, thus potentially destroying the man's career.
Normally cautious, Charlie is keen on participating in this scam, confident that the money he'll make from the scam will finally help turn things around for him and his family. The plan goes ahead when they are joined by Gus' ex, one-time pageant queen Josie McBroom, but it goes wrong when Reverend Smalls dies thanks to this trio, and this is only the start of their troubles.