Willie is a realistic film made in Bernalillo, home of Willie Jaramillo and filmmakers Danny and Nancy Weiss Lyon. Defiantly individual and implaccable in the face of authority, Willie is repeatedly thrown into jail, at first for relatively minor offenses. The filmmakers gain access to jail cells, day rooms, lunatic wards, and the worst cellblock in the penitentiary, where Willie is locked up next to his childhood friend and convicted murderer, Michael Guzman.