It's a sunny afternoon in the Wild West and Buster Scruggs rides his horse through
isolated lands. He comes off as a cheerful singing cowboy but the truth is, he's the
most dangerous gunman in the area and there's a hefty reward on his head. During his travels,
he finds a cantina where he stops to have a drink; however the barman refuses to sell whiskey to him
because it's a banned drink and therefore only outlaws will be served. Buster tries to explain
he shouldn't be judged based on his clean looks and chirpy demeanor because he's an outlaw too,
but nobody believes him, and a cowboy is even ready to fight in order to kick him out. This
cowboy ends up quickly regretting underestimating his enemy because Buster is incredibly fast and
draws his gun in a second to shoot every single person in the cantina. Afterward, Buster travels a
little bit longer until he arrives at Frenchman's Gulch, a town he's never visited before. His first
stop is the local saloon, where he must leave all his weapons at the door to comply with the
no firearms policy. Then, he joins a game of poker at the nearest table under the condition he picks
up the hand left by the player that just left. Unfortunately when Buster checks the cards he
discovers the last player left because he had the infamous dead man's hand and refuses to play it,
causing the ire of the other players, especially the scary Joe. Thinking he's above the rules,
Joe pulls out his hidden gun to threaten Buster, but he quickly defends himself by kicking a loose
plank on the table to hit the gun and make it turn again its master, instantly killing Joe. This
incident makes thick tension take over the saloon, so Buster starts singing a song he makes up on
the spot about Joe, inspiring everyone to sing and dance along. Their cheerful fun is suddenly
interrupted by Joe's brother, who has found out what happened and challenges Buster to a duel to
get revenge. Once again, Buster proves he's the fastest gunman in the area and, after expertly
shooting each of the man's fingers, he finally kills him by looking at him in the mirror just
to show off. Buster is feeling smug and confident as usual when suddenly, another singing cowboy
arrives in town: it's The Kid, who also challenges Buster to a duel. This encounter is even faster
than the last one, but this time it's Buster who dies because he finally has found someone faster
than him. As his soul leaves the mortal realm, Buster admits he should've seen it coming because
you can't be the top dog forever, and even sings along to The Kid's song. Meanwhile in New Mexico,
a young cowboy finds an isolated bank and tries to rob it. The bank teller pretends to
collaborate and bends over to grab the money, but actually he's moving to shoot his hidden weapons
as a distraction before running away. The cowboy manages to dodge the shots and wastes no time in
grabbing the money from the cash box, but as soon as he rushes out, the teller opens fire on him
and forces him to hide behind a well. The cowboy tries to shoot back yet his efforts are pointless:
the banker has covered his body with pots and pans that reflect all the bullets. Thanks to
this extra protection, the teller manages to come close enough to knock the cowboy out. When the
cowboy wakes up hours later, he finds himself tied to a tree and his hands tied to the saddle
of his horse. It turns out a posse has already found him guilty and sentenced him to death,
so this is the cowboy's chance to say his final words. Before the cowboy can say anything though,
they're ambushed by a bunch of Comanche warriors who quickly kill the whole posse yet leave the
cowboy on his horse, thinking it would be funny for him to suffer slowly. The cowboy spends a
few hours on his horse trying his best to keep the animal from moving too far and triggering
his death. Eventually the cowboy finally gets lucky and is found by a drover, who frees him
by shooting the rope and allows him to ride with him for safety. Not even an hour passes
before the cowboy discovers he isn't as lucky as he thought: the drover is actually a rustler and
when another posse finds them he rides away while the cowboy gets arrested again. Moments later,
the cowboy is taken to town where he's found guilty by the judge and sent to the gallows. While
waiting for the end, he concentrates on looking at a young woman in the crowd so the last thing
he sees before death can be a beautiful sight. Not far from there, an aging impresario travels
with Harrison, a young man with no arms or legs but with a very beautiful voice that he uses to
recite classics from Shakespeare and Lincoln among others. The wagon they travel in becomes a stage
every time they stop in a town, and while Harrison recites his classics, the impresario collects
money from the audience. He's also in charge of feeding Harrison, putting on his make-up,
and even helping him relieve himself. It's a very frustrating and sad life, and the impresario gets
more tired of Harrison every day. When they visit bawdy houses, the impresario doesn't even bother
to pay for a girl for Harrison too, he leaves him in the same room and turns him around while he has
his own fun, this means Harrison still has to hear everything. The further they travel around remote
mountain towns, the less interested the audiences are in their little show and they barely make any
money. One evening, the impresario notices their audience is tiny because a different wagon has
everyone's attention: the crow is cheering for a chicken that can do basic addition and
subtraction by pecking at some painted numbers. Seeing an opportunity, the impresario decides to
buy the chicken, and he takes care of it with as much care as he offers Harrison,
who is starting to get worried about what comes next. The next day, the impresario stops the wagon
by a bridge and tests the depth of the river that runs underneath by dropping a large stone into the
water. The results are exactly what he needs, and moments later the impresario is back on the road
with only the chicken as a passenger in the wagon because Harrison has been pushed into the river as
well. Speaking of rivers, there's one running down a mountain where a grizzled prospector has arrived
to search for gold. At first his pan only picks up tiny gold specks, but by counting the amount each
time the prospector follows the trail of where he should be digging to find the source. The man even
makes camp next to the river and he survives by fishing and stealing eggs from birds' nests. After
many days of digging small holes, the prospector manages to triangulate the source and begins
digging deeper. His calculations turn out to be perfect and he finally gets to find a large gold
vein that will make him rich, but unfortunately there's no time to celebrate: a young man that
has been trailing the prospector comes closer and shoots him. After making a cigarette to celebrate,
the young man jumps in the hole to move the body only to get ambushed by the prospector,
who had been only pretending to be dead. The old man wrestles the guy for his gun and kills him,
then he checks his body and confirms it was a clean shot: it came out through his back and
didn't hit anything important. After bandaging the wound, the prospector finishes mining the gold,
buries the young man in the hole, and leaves the valley on a horse carrying his new fortune.
In the meantime, siblings Alice and Gilbert have joined a wagon train that is crossing
the Oregon Trail. Gilbert isn't exactly a good businessman, but he claims he's contacted a new
business partner that is willing to marry his sister when they make it to Oregon.
Traveling with them is Gilbert's dog President Pierce, who is considered extremely annoying
by the rest of the travelers because of his constant barking. Shortly after the trip begins,
Gilbert goes through a violent coughing fit and dies of what seems to be cholera.
The wagon train's leaders Billy and Arthur help Alice bury him after they ask her if she wants
to keep traveling with them or she'll go back home. Realizing she has nothing to return to,
Alice accepts to stay with them to find her luck in Oregon. The next day, Alice receives more bad
news: the boy Gilbert hired to lead their wagon claims he was promised a wage of $400 and expects
the first half to be paid when they reach the halfway point. Alice doesn't have money and if
her brother did have any, it was left in his coat, which is now buried with him. It's too far away to
go back now, so Alice asks Arthur and Billy for advice, and the men point out the wage is insane,
definitely higher than usual. Alice thinks it's Gilbert's fault for being an awful businessman,
but Billy thinks the boy may be lying, thus he advises her to ignore him for now and when they
make it to the halfway point, he'll try to scare him into confessing the truth. Since
President Pierce keeps being complained about and Alice doesn't want to take responsibility for him
because he's not hers, Gilbert also helps hers to get rid of the dog by taking him to the middle of
the valley and scaring him off with a shot at the sky. The trip continues without any trouble, and
Alice and Billy get to share some time together, discovering they agree on many philosophies. When
the hired boy asks for confirmation of his pay, Billy tries to talk to him and fails,
so he offers Alice an alternative: since he's been thinking about retiring from
the wagon train for a while now, he asks Alice to marry him, that way he can assume
Gilbert's debt and build a home with a proper family. Alice is quite shocked to hear this,
but she's grown fond of Billy too and accepts the proposal. A few days later, Arthur worries about
fresh footprints found in the area and checks on his travelers only to discover Alice is missing.
It turns out she heard President Pierce nearby and went to watch him bark at some prairie dogs,
leaving the wagon train further than she realized. Arthur finds her and tries to bring her back as
quickly as possible, but sadly they aren't fast enough and they get ambushed by a Native American
party. Since he has two weapons, Arthur uses one to defend himself and gives the other to Alice,
urging her to end things for herself if he gets killed because death is preferable to
be captured by the Natives, who would put her through terrible, painful punishments. Arthur
is actually quite a skilled gunman and manages to scare the Natives away with precise shots,
but when he thinks everything is over, a warrior takes him by surprise and makes him fall with a
quick hit. Pretending to be unconscious, Arthur waits for the Native American to come closer and
shoots him before returning to Alice's side only to find out the worst news: she also thought he
was dead and used the pistol exactly like he told her to. After covering her with his coat, Arthur
starts making his way back to the wagon train together with President Pierce while wondering
what he's gonna tell Billy. On a different road, five people ride in a stagecoach to Fort Morgan.
After singing for most of the ride, which annoys everyone aboard, Thigpen explains he
and his partner Clarence often travel this route while ferrying cargo, alluding to something on
the roof of the coach without specifying what it is. Now that Thigpen has finally stopped singing,
a conversation begins among the travelers, prompting the fur trapper to talk about his past
relationship with a Hunkpapa woman that flourished even if they couldn't speak each other's language
because he thinks all people are alike in their basic needs. Lady Betjeman, a devout Christian,
is offended by this idea and reminds everyone there are only two kinds of people, the good and
the sinning. This triggers an argument about human nature that is also joined by Frenchman René,
but Thigpen and Clarence only make a comment here and there, preferring to watch with amusement.
When René questions if Lady Betjeman has stayed loyal to her husband while living apart for a
couple of years, Lady Betjeman's so indignant that she becomes apoplectic. Putting his head out the
window, René tries to ask the driver to stop the coach to no avail, prompting Thigpen to explain
that the company's policy doesn't allow the coach to stop for any reason. To calm Lady Betjeman
down, Clarence decides to sing a bittersweet folk song, which successfully helps the woman but also
makes Thigpen cry. Curious about these mysterious men, the trapper makes them explain what exactly
is their business, and Thigpen reveals they're bounty hunters. Their teamwork is foolproof:
Thigpen distracts their target with stories while Clarence quickly "thumps" them. Thigpen
also confesses he loves watching them die because there's something beautiful in their targets'
expressions. Hearing this obviously creeps out the other three passengers, who are now afraid
of what awaits them at their destination. Once the coach makes it to Fort Morgan,
Thigpen and Clarence grab their cargo, which turns out to be a body, and enter the hotel where
everyone is staying. René, Lady Betjeman, and the trapper take longer to disembark,
feeling wary and scared, but eventually they enter the hotel too and René closes the door behind them
after watching the coach leave, realizing there won't be a way out if they need it.