Fargo begins with a white canvas, and as the initial credits start to appear, the icy North Dakota landscape arises, with the strange flight of a bird through the snow. There is a warning that the story tells a real fact that happened in Minnesota in 1987, but that the real names were changed in "respect to the dead."

The locations took place made in the two neighboring states and in the cities where the tragedy occurred. It looks like a home-made movie, as the directors, the Cohen brothers, Ethan, and director Joel grew up in Minneapolis.

Every expectation falls apart as the story progresses, to the point of not knowing for sure whether we are witnessing a tragedy, as promised, or a satire, comedy, thriller, or thriller. It's a unique, unrivaled movie where transitions occur smoothly, and even violence seems "natural."

The story revolves around a failed car salesman, Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), who desperately needs money for a deal that can save him from bankruptcy and also the domination of his wealthy father-in-law (Harve Presnell), who, by chance, owns the car agency where Jerry works.

To make his investment viable, Jerry hires two scumbag lowlifes called Showalter and Grimsrud (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife Jean (Kristin Rudrud) and share the $ 80,000 ransom paid by father-in-law Wade. Simple like that simple. Said no one ever, because everything goes wrong and all expectations turn into nightmares in the most amazing ways possible.

In the middle of the movie, some corpses begin to appear, frozen. Called to investigate possible murders, Brainerd's border town police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) also has an unexpected profile: pregnant, she needs to have her vehicle pushed to get the engine started, and before going to the police station, goes to the market to buy worms for her husband Norm (John Carrol Lynch) to fish.