In 1873, Stubby Preston, a professional gambler, rides into the rough frontier town of Salt Flats, Utah with plans to work the local casino. His arrival is cut short when the town sheriff arrests him as soon as he steps off the stagecoach. That same night, a vigilante raid is set to unfold against the casino, and the sheriff plans to turn a blind eye to it. The only criminals to survive the night are the four who were in the jail when it happened: Stubby Preston, a pregnant prostitute named Bunny, a troubled but gentle Black man named Bud, and an alcoholic named Clem.
At dawn, the sheriff, seeing them safe enough to move, offers a wagon and horses in exchange for Stubby’s $1,000 stake. The quartet sets off with a plan to push south toward Sun City, about 200 miles away. Along the road, they cross paths with a group of Quaker immigrants. The patriarch of the Quaker household mistakes Bunny for Stubby’s wife, a misunderstanding the four play into for a while, then abandon when the Quakers depart. Not long after, they witness a brutal bandit raid on settlers, a stark reminder of the violence that threads through their journey.
On Bunny’s birthday, the group rests by a river. Bud catches a fish, and they fashion a sand cake to celebrate, washing it down with water from their canteens. The moment is shattered by gunfire, and their fire is doused as a stranger, a wanderer named Chaco, joins them. Stubby remains wary of the newcomer, but for a time things seem to settle. When three gunmen close in, Chaco saves them from ambush, though the gunmen turn out to be lawmen, and [Chaco] tortures the surviving deputy. The group is drawn into an uneasy alliance with the enigmatic traveler, aided by Chaco’s peyote buttons, which they share one night by the campfire. Stubby partakes, though he keeps most of the experience off balance, and Chaco uses the lure of whiskey to push Clem into a coercive bind that includes Stubby and Bud.
Chaco binds them all, taunting Stubby Preston and forcing Bud to cooperate as Bunny is bound to a tree. The moment grows darker as Chaco rapes Bunny and goads Stubby with taunts about his own love for her. He directs Clem to “be quick about it” if he wants to join in the crime, and Clem realizes the horror of what’s being asked. He tries to intervene, but Chaco shoots him in the leg, leaving the four to die. In a desperate act, Clem frees Stubby Preston, who frees the others. Bud builds a stretcher for Clem, and Stubby removes the bullet from Clem’s wound as they press on.
The four find themselves pursued by Chaco and his cohorts, who trail their trail and threaten to overtake them. They spot a caravan of Bible Folk they hope to raid for supplies, and the bandits redouble their efforts. The pursuit crescendos as they discover the remains of the caravan and the earlier immigrants they met, all dead at the hands of Chaco’s gang. Stubby swears a renewed vow to kill Chaco.
A fierce rainstorm forces the four to take shelter in a ghost town. Tragically, Clem succumbs to an infection, and Bud’s mind begins to fracture under the weight of his friend’s death. He drags Clem’s body away, while Stubby and Bunny confess their love for one another and share a moment of intimacy. When Bud returns with meat he has scavenged, the group wrestles with the grim reality that the dead man’s flesh now feeds them. The decision to send Bud to the “ghosts” of the town underscores the mounting sense that vengeance may be their only compass.
Later, they encounter an old pastor friend of Stubby, which leads them to a snowy, mountaintop mining town inhabited almost entirely by men. The locals are unsettled by a woman giving birth in their midst, yet fascination grows into a strange reverence for the birth of new life. Bunny dies in childbirth, leaving Stubby stunned and bereaved. The townsfolk, now enthralled by the infant they christen Lucky, offer protection and baptism, and Stubby entrusts the child to the care of the miners, finding a fragile, hopeful respite in the power of new life.
With Bunny gone and the child in the keeping of the mining town, Stubby continues his vigilante quest for revenge against Chaco. He tracks the bandits to a barn, where he eliminates two of Chaco’s men and then confronts Chaco himself. The taunts resume, with Chaco holding up the dead evangelist’s cross and reminding Stubby of Bunny’s rape. The confrontation ends when Stubby shoots Chaco dead and sets his sights on the horizon, a lone figure accompanied only by a stray dog who joins him on the journey forward.
This stark western tale moves through themes of survival, trust, and vengeance, showing how a quartet of misfits threads through violence to carve out a precarious path toward a final reckoning with the man who shattered their lives. It balances brutal acts with quiet moments of humanity, as Stubby clings to memory, love, and the possibility of redemption even as the road grows colder and more desolate.
