Twenty years earlier, Gasback and his gang rob a bank. The other henchmen betray him and escape with the money, leaving Gasback to be caught by the police. Vash the Stampede intervenes to stop Gasback from killing any of the others, and Gasback, uncaptured, forges a life of crime that endures into the present.
In the present, Cain has risen to become the mayor of Macca City, using his share of the robbery money to upgrade the city’s power plant and to commission a colossal bronze statue in his own likeness. One of Gasback’s former accomplices, Dorino, has been forced to hide with Cain after Gasback destroyed his business. Cain then applies for an insurance policy on the statue from the Bernardelli Insurance Society, which prompts Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson to travel to Macca City to help protect it.
The high stakes around the statue and the power plant draw a crowd of bounty hunters eager to claim a large reward for Gasback’s capture. While traveling to Macca City by sand steamer, [Vash the Stampede] helps a young woman named Amelia fend off a group of thugs harassing her. He flirts with her after they arrive and saves her from an attack in a saloon, but she repeatedly expresses disgust toward him.
Gasback is saved from a police ambush by Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who acts as his bodyguard after Gasback once saved him from dying of thirst in the desert. Wolfwood has agreed to protect Gasback without taking an active role in the robberies. Later, Gasback travels to another city and destroys a factory owned by Mechio, another former associate. As Mechio seeks refuge with Cain, the bounty hunters decide that Gasback will not hit Macca City after all and begin to disperse their efforts.
Gasback makes a bold push toward Cain’s mansion, and Wolfwood distracts Vash long enough for him to slip inside. Declaring his contract with Gasback fulfilled, Wolfwood then allows Vash to pursue the robber into the mansion. A tense standoff follows, during which Cain shoots Dorino and Mechio, and Amelia learns of Vash’s involvement in Gasback’s escape twenty years earlier. Despite Amelia’s protest that his actions have caused widespread suffering for others, including herself and her mother, Vash allows Gasback to escape once more.
Gasback sets off explosives to separate the city’s plant from its cradle and lets it roll away, smashing Cain’s statue as his gang secures it to a getaway vehicle and flees. Amelia gives chase, intending to kill Gasback; Vash and Wolfwood hurry to stop her, but Vash is shot and sinks into quicksand, vanishing from sight. Meryl and Milly are stunned by the news, and Amelia begins to question whether she has become no better than Gasback.
The next day, Amelia and Wolfwood head out again to stop Gasback and recover the plant, only to be surprised by the reappearance of Vash, who survived because the bullet struck a piece of smoked meat in his coat pocket. Meryl and Milly rescue him, and the trio heads after Gasback. Vash duels Gasback and wounds him, but Gasback activates an electrical weapon intended to kill Vash. Amelia counters it with a hidden glove, which Gasback recognizes as something he once made for his wife, Amelia’s mother. She reveals that his former wife died after a difficult period, and the glove has become a symbol passed down to her.
Having adopted Vash’s philosophy of choosing life, Amelia spares Gasback. Cain then tries to finish him with a missile, but Wolfwood destroys it. Gasback and all of his current and past henchmen are finally arrested, and the plant is reinstalled in Macca City. Meryl and Milly return to Bernardelli headquarters, while Vash and Wolfwood set off across the desert. Reading a newspaper about a prison escape by a different group of outlaws prompts Vash to alter his course, leaving Wolfwood to wonder about a possible past connection between Vash and them as well.
