In the 1870’s, a teenage John Cooper accompanies his father James to a location known as the Devil’s Canyon, the two of them in pursuit of an outlaw named Frank. Father and son make their way through a group of outlaws camped out in an abandoned town; James using a knife to kill when necessary, John tossing fake coins to distract and misdirect. As they approach their quarry, James tells John to wait until he returns, but John asks why he can’t have a gun and accompany his father. In reply, James gives John his knife and tells the boy to throw it into a nearby tree; once he can do that, he’ll be ready for a gun. John attempts to do this, and James walks off.
Chapter I: The Doctor and the Bride
Years later, the now adult John is stowing away on a train headed for the town of Flagstone when it gets held up by a large group of bandits. With his father’s knife, his fake coins and a pair of revolvers, John investigates the reason for the stop, and comes across a bearded man in black and purple being held at gunpoint by two bandits. John comes to the rescue of the man, before being saved in turn when the man pulls out a scoped, long-barreled revolver and shoots a bandit that had snuck up behind him. Introducing himself as Doctor McCoy, the man explains that he’s been hired by the DeVitt Company to safeguard the train, and he and John work together to deal with the bandits - McCoy bringing his long-range pistol, bandages and a booby-trapped medical bag to the table. John chooses to take a horse and ride to Flagstone afterwards, explaining that he's got an appointment to keep. He admits that it was good to work with McCoy, and the doctor tells John to send for him the next time he needs a professional.Later that day, John is unwinding in Flagstone’s saloon when a group of thugs in the employ of the DeVitt Company - including a long coat, one of the game’s Elite Mooks - waltz in and start throwing their weight around. John is quickly overpowered by the long coat when he insists on finishing his drink, but he’s saved by the arrival of a big, tough hispanic trapper named Hector Alcazar, who easily manhandles the long coat out of the saloon. Hector’s a friend of John, and has been an enemy of the DeVitt Company ever since they started trying to build their latest railroad through the town, forcing locals out of their homes in the process. John sticks around to help Hector bump off a group of DeVitt goons in Flagstone - Hector lending his physique, an axe and a mantrap affectionately named “Bianca” - before asking about Frank; turns out he’s hunting the guy once again, having learned that Frank’s working for DeVitt. Hector reveals that Frank is staying at the mayor’s estate, and the two men agree to go there tomorrow.
That next day, the mayor’s bride-to-be - a strong-willed redhead named Kate O’Hara - breaks into the man’s office through the liberal use of Groin Attacks and blinding perfume, intending to steal some papers. Before she can find them, she’s forced to hide in a wardrobe when Frank and Mayor Higgins enter for a conversation; from it, she learns that Higgins is also in cahoots with the DeVitt company, and has sold the O’Hara family’s ranch to them. John sneaks into the mayor’s estate shortly after Frank leaves, and comes across Kate taking Higgins to task for selling her family’s land without her sayso. Things escalate to an armed confrontation between the two, with Kate grabbing a wall-mounted shotgun and blasting Higgins back onto his desk before escaping with John, disguising herself and using her feminine wiles to distract guards when necessary.
With the DeVitt Company now coming for the O’Hara ranch, John and Hector agree to help Kate and her uncle defend it, with McCoy - who had been screwed out of his payment for the train job by the company - joining them after being hired with the money Kate took from the late Mayor Higgins. The gang is able to repel the company men - McCoy now sporting poison gas vials, and Hector a sawn-off shotgun he found in the ranch boathouse - but Kate’s uncle is hit by a gatling gun round and dies from the injury. In retaliation, the gang head to Eagle Falls - Kate bringing along her mother’s derringer - and destroy the railway bridge being used by the DeVitt Company, preventing them from being able to bring in more goons and continue harassing the people of Flagstone. The gang then make plans to head to New Orleans, where Frank is.
Chapter II: The Marshall and the Witch
At this point, we go back to John’s teenage years. While waiting for his father to return, John hears a gunshot in the distance, and then witnesses a group of outlaws start searching the area. Pulling his knife out of the tree, he sneaks past the outlaws and into an abandoned cemetery, where he sees a captive James being questioned by Frank, with a long coat and another mook nearby. As James tries to keep his son’s involvement secret, Frank orders the mook to execute him, but John kills the mook with his throwing knife before he can do so. Hearing John vow to kill him, Frank gives the kid a revolver and takes James as a human shield. “One good shot, kid. That’s all it takes.” He counts to three, and John fires.Back in the present day, the gang wake up one morning to discover they trashed the town of Baton Rouge following a wild night that none of them remember. Evading the angry locals, they take a river boat to New Orleans, but run afoul of more DeVitt goons en route. They are saved by the arrival of Isabelle Moreau, a “voodoo witch” who can mind control enemies and link their fates together via blow darts, as well as distract them with her pet cat Stella. Following their escape, Isabelle decides to accompany the gang after revealing that she too is headed to New Orleans.
Within the city, a U.S. marshal named Wayne is captured by Frank while investigating a DeVitt Company storage yard. Wayne turns out to be a friend of Isabelle’s, prompting her to try and find him. Kate and McCoy agree to help - the latter wanting to make things square between him and Isabelle - while John and Hector head off to look for Frank. Kate, McCoy and Isabelle eventually find the storage yard, but discover that Wayne has been taken to an encampment in the bayou known as the Queen’s Nest. While Kate stays behind to continue digging up information in New Orleans, the rest of the gang head to the Queen’s Nest, discovering it to be the center of a kidnapping operation that provides slaves for DeVitt business ventures. The gang rescue Wayne and the other captives, before destroying the encampment and making their escape.
Returning to New Orleans, the gang find that Frank and the DeVitt Company have put the city on lockdown following the events at the Queen’s Nest. Wayne and Isabelle advise John to delay his hunt in order to let the heat cool off and plan things out, but John is intent on catching Frank immediately, and he, Hector and Kate head down to the harbor to find him. They reach the entrance of the pier Frank is currently located, but John insists that he be allowed to face Frank alone, much to Hector’s disapproval. The big Mexican punches John when he refuses to relent, warning him that he’ll end up like his father, to which John responds by shooting him in the shoulder. With Hector’s injury, he and Kate reluctantly allow John to proceed on his own, and John heads down the pier, finding Frank on a Devitt Company ship moored there. The two men decide to resolve the matter in classic Showdown at High Noon style…and Frank ends up out drawing and shooting John. So much for handling things one-on-one, huh?
John survives, albeit down on one knee and in great pain, and Frank compliments him on his speed. He then moves to finish him off, but he is interrupted by the arrival of company owner Vincent DeVitt and two long coats, who reveal that they have captured all of John’s allies except Wayne. DeVitt orders them and John to be sent to his mines and worked to death.
Chapter III: The Trapper and the Kid
We return to the past and the cemetery, with James Cooper freshly dead, and Frank preparing to send John after him. The long coat - speaking with a very familiar hispanic accent - protests this on the basis of John’s age, but Frank doesn’t take kindly to being told what to do, and tells the other man to do it instead, even giving him James’s knife to do the deed. Frank leaves, and the long coat is unable to go through with the order, placing the knife on the ground for John to retrieve. He asks John his name and offers him a handshake, before introducing himself as Hector.Back in the present day, the gang are imprisoned within a DeVitt goldmine somewhere in New Mexico. McCoy, Hector and Isabelle are able to escape their captivity and rescue John and Kate, but McCoy decides to cut his losses and leave once they’re out of the mine. The others head towards a nearby train station; as Isabelle treats John's injuries and encourages him to rely on his friends, Hector and Kate stop a train to allow the gang to stowaway on it, before meeting up with Wayne and kidnapping DeVitt from his estate on the Mexican border at the marshal’s request. DeVitt manages to get his hands on Hector’s shotgun and hold them all at gunpoint the next morning, but he is prevented from harming them by the returning McCoy, who claims he had returned in anticipation of something going wrong. The corrupt tycoon is handed over to Wayne, and the gang turn their attention to Frank - their sole remaining loose end - who had left DeVitt’s employment shortly before the events at the estate.
John and friends travel through the Devil’s Canyon, dealing with Frank’s outlaws along the way, before they arrive at the entrance to the abandoned cemetery where John lost his father long ago. Having learned his lesson since New Orleans, John allows his friends to follow him into the cemetery for his showdown with Frank, with Kate giving him a kiss before he sets off. Unfortunately, Frank turns out to have had a similar idea; as he and John face each other in the cemetery, his old lieutenants emerge from the nearby chapel and surround them, ready to act in case John manages to harm their boss, or one of his friends gets spotted. Undeterred, the gang coordinates a simultaneous takedown of all the lieutenants right as John and Frank draw, with John proving the victor this time around. Frank commends John as he bleeds out, before John repeats Frank’s words about “one good shot” and shoots him in the head.
