In THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE, Billy Bob Thornton plays Ed Crane, who thinks of himself simply as "The Barber." He mans the second chair in a barbershop owned by his wife's brother. He isn’t particularly happy with his life in Santa Rosa, but he doesn’t expect happiness, and even if he did, he wouldn’t expect himself to take any steps to find it. He does what he’s told, because it never occurs to him that he has a choice. Ed believes that his wife, Doris (Frances McDormand), is having an affair with her affable boss, "Big Dave" Brewster (James Gandolfini). Ed isn’t jealous or angry. He has no particular feeling about it. But then he meets Creighton Tolliver (Joe Polito) who tells him that for only $10,000, Ed can invest in a new invention so wonderful it would just have to make a man wealthy – "dry cleaning." Ed decides to blackmail Big Dave to get the money. But things go wrong, two people are murdered, and the wrong person is arrested. A pretty teenager who plays the piano makes Ed think about the world outside of Santa Rosa.