Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a crime drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Martin McDonagh and starring Frances McDormand as a Missouri woman who rents three roadside billboards to draw attention to her daughter's unsolved rape and murder. Critical reception for the film was highly positive, with particular acclaim given to McDonagh's screenplay and direction, as well as the performances of McDormand, Rockwell, and Harrelson. In the fictional town of Ebbing, Missouri, Mildred Hayes is grieving over the rape and murder of her teenage daughter, Angela, seven months earlier.
Angry over the lack of progress in the investigation, she rents three disused billboards near her home and posts on them: " Raped While Dying ", " And Still No Arrests? They attract attention, so Bill Willoughby, the local chief of police, visits Mildred, but is unable to persuade her to take them down, even by revealing he has terminal pancreatic cancer. He renews his efforts to solve the case, but does not get anywhere.
Many townspeople are upset by the billboards, including Jason Dixon, a racist, alcoholic police officer, who unsuccessfully tries to intimidate Red Welby, who rented Mildred the billboards, into taking them down.
Mildred's dentist is sympathetic to Willoughby and menaces her during an appointment, so she drills a hole in his thumbnail. Willoughby brings her in for questioning and accidentally coughs up blood into her face. He has her released and is hospitalized, though he soon checks himself out against medical advice.
The billboards have further strained Mildred's relationship with her son, Robbie, and she recalls that her last interaction with Angela was an argument. Her abusive ex-cop ex-husband Charlie confronts her about the billboards and ends up revealing that, shortly before Angela's murder, he had turned down her request to come live with him.
