Jack (Gabriel Bourne Gabriel Byrne) is a cartoonist who is sent to prison for misdeeds. Behind bars, Jack relies on drawing cartoons to send his inner pain. He creates a comic book called "the Cold World" and has a villain female character named Holly (Kim Bessinger Kim Basinger) in the comic book. Who knows that Holly in the story unexpectedly uses Jack to come to the real world, while another character in the comic book, Detective Frank (Brad Pitt Brad Pitt), warns Jack that he must not be seduced by Holly to fall in love with her, otherwise, both reality and comics will be destroyed. However, Holly is so charming that Jack can't help but be deeply attracted to her and fall in love. In this way, the two men fought a brilliant tug-of-war in Las Vegas.