It’s been already seven months since her daughter’s hideous murder, and the divorced mother, Mildred Hayes, is still grieving, refusing to come to terms with her loss. In Mildred’s case, nothing seems to be able to take away the gut-wrenching pain only a mother feels when she loses a child; however, in one of those spur-of-the-moment decisions, the plucky parent will rent three derelict billboards on the outskirts of her town, Ebbing, to declare war against the local police for failing to find the killer.

No one is spared in this brave crusade, not even the ailing police chief, Willoughby, as Mildred’s bold black-on-red statements demand answers and the culprit’s head on a platter. Just how far is Mildred willing to go to appease her rage? A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter’s murder when they fail to catch the culprit.