Joliet" Jake Blues is released from prison after serving three years for armed robbery. Jake is irritated at being picked up by his brother Elwood in the Bluesmobile, a battered former Mount Prospect police cruiser, instead of the Cadillac the brothers used to own. The brothers visit their childhood home in Calumet City, Illinois, St. Helen of the Blessed Shroud, which is a Roman Catholic orphanage, and learn that it is facing imminent closure unless $5,000 in property taxes is collected. The brothers visit an evangelical church service where Jake has an epiphany: they can legitimately raise the funds by re-forming their rhythm and blues band.