Bound from Cleveland, accountant William Blake journeys by train to the American frontier company town of "Machine" to assume a promised job with the company Dickinson Metalworks. During the train ride Blake is warned by the train's engineeer that Blake has come all the way "out to hell" and says "you're just as likely to find your own grave". Immediately after this foreboding conversation with the engineer, Blake is startled by the passengers massacering Buffalo herds, as they begin shooting at them from the windows of the moving train.
When Blake arrives in Machine, he discovers that his job is already taken and is driven from the workplace at gunpoint by John Dickinson, the ferocious owner of the company. Jobless and without money or prospects, Blake meets Thel Russell, a former prostitute who sells paper flowers, and lets her take him home. Thel's ex-boyfriend Charlie surprises them in bed and shoots Blake, accidentally killing Thel when she tries to shield Blake with her body.
A wounded Blake shoots and kills Charlie with Thel's gun before climbing dazedly out the window and fleeing Machine on a stolen pinto horse.