American dancer Jerry Travers comes to London to star in a show produced by the bumbling Horace Hardwick. While practicing a tap dance routine in his hotel bedroom, he awakens Dale Tremont on the floor below. She storms upstairs to complain, whereupon Jerry falls hopelessly in love with her and proceeds to pursue her all over London. Dale mistakes Jerry for Horace, who is married to her friend Madge. Following the success of Jerry's opening night in London, Jerry follows Dale to Venice, where she is visiting Madge and modelling/promoting the gowns created by Alberto Beddini, a dandified Italian fashion designer with a penchant for malapropisms. Jerry proposes to Dale, who, while still believing that Jerry is Horace, is disgusted that her friend's husband could behave in such a manner and agrees instead to marry Alberto. Fortunately, Bates, Horace's meddling English valet, disguises himself as a priest and conducts the ceremony; Horace had sent Bates to keep tabs on Dale. On a trip in a gondola, Jerry manages to convince Dale and they return to the hotel where the previous confusion is rapidly cleared up. The reconciled couple dance off into the Venetian sunset, to the tune of "The Piccolino".

In 1815, French prisoner Jean Valjean is released from the Bagne of Toulon after a nineteen-year sentence for stealing bread and attempting to escape the sentence. His paroled status prevents him from finding work or accommodation, but he is sheltered by the kindly Bishop of Digne. Valjean attempts to steal his silverware and is captured, but the bishop claims he gave him the silver and tells him to use it to begin an honest life. Moved, Valjean breaks his parole and assumes a new identity, intending to redeem others. Eight years later, Valjean is a respected factory owner and mayor of Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais. He is startled when Javert, formerly a Toulon prison guard, arrives as his new chief of police. Witnessing Valjean rescue a worker trapped under a cart makes Javert suspect the former's true identity. Meanwhile, one of Valjean's workers, Fantine, is fired by the foreman when she is revealed to have an illegitimate daughter, Cosette, residing with the greedy Thénardier family, to whom Fantine sends her earnings. Out on the streets and increasingly ill, Fantine sells her hair, teeth and eventually her body to support Cosette. Javert arrests her after she physically attacks a sexually abusive client, but Valjean recognises her and takes her to the hospital, much to Javert's suspicion and anger. Learning that a man has been wrongly identified as him, Valjean reveals his identity to the court before returning to the dying Fantine, promising to care for Cosette. Javert arrives to arrest him but he escapes to the Thénardiers' inn. Valjean pays Fantine's debts, then flees from Javert with Cosette. Nine years later, Valjean has become a philanthropist to the poor in Paris. General Lamarque, the only government official sympathetic to the poor, dies, and the revolutionist group Friends of the ABC plot against the monarchy. Marius Pontmercy, a member of the Friends, falls in love with Cosette at first sight and asks his best friend Éponine, the Thénardiers' daughter, to find her. He and Cosette meet and confess their love; Éponine, herself in love with Marius, is heartbroken. Thénardier attempts to rob Valjean's house, but Éponine stops him. Fearing Javert is near, Valjean plans to flee to England with Cosette. Cosette, wanting to stay near Marius, is hesitant about the idea, but when Valjean ignores her pleas, she leaves Marius a letter, which Éponine hides from him. During Lamarque's funeral procession, the revolt begins and barricades are built across Paris. Javert poses as an ally to spy on the rebels, but the street urchin Gavroche exposes him as a policeman. During the first skirmish against the soldiers, Éponine takes a bullet for Marius and dies in his arms, giving him Cosette's letter and confessing her love, leaving Marius devastated and heartbroken over the death of his best friend. Marius's answer to Cosette is intercepted by Valjean, who joins the revolt to protect him. Valjean offers to execute the imprisoned Javert, but releases him instead, pretending he shot him. By dawn, the soldiers storm the barricade and kill everyone except Marius and Valjean, who escape into the sewers. Javert waits for him to exit, but seeing that Marius is close to death, he lets them go. Morally disturbed by the mercy of his nemesis and his own in return, Javert kills himself by throwing himself in the Seine. Marius recovers, traumatized by the death of his friends, especially Éponine. Marius and Cosette are reunited, but Valjean, concerned his past would threaten their happiness, makes plans to leave. He reveals his past to Marius, who promises to remain silent. At Marius and Cosette's wedding, the Thénardiers crash the reception to blackmail him; but instead, realizing that Valjean saved him from the barricade, Marius forces Thénardier to reveal where he is. Cosette and Marius find Valjean, who gives them letters of confession before dying peacefully. His spirit is guided by visions of Fantine and the Bishop to join Éponine, Gavroche, and the Friends of the ABC in the afterlife.

Six fish in a restaurant's tank greet each other, then see their friend being eaten. This leads them to question the meaning of life. In the first sketch, "The Miracle of Birth", maternity doctors ignore a woman in labour while trying to impress the hospital's administrator. In Yorkshire, a Roman Catholic man is made redundant from his job, and informs his numerous children that he must sell them for scientific experiments. A Protestant man looks on disapprovingly and proudly remarks that Protestants can use contraception and have sex for pleasure (although his wife observes that they never do). In "Growth and Learning", a class of boys learn school etiquette before partaking in a sex education lesson, which involves watching their teacher have sex with his wife. One boy laughs and is forced into a violent rugby match pitting pupils against the school masters as punishment. "Fighting Each Other" features three scenes concerning the British military. First, during the Battle of the Somme in World War I, a British officer tries to rally his men during an attack, but they instead present him with going-away gifts. Second, a modern army RSM bullies his soldiers to say what they would rather be doing than marching drills, then dismisses each in turn. Lastly, in 1879 during the Anglo-Zulu War during the Battle of Rorke's Drift, a soldier finds his leg has been bitten off. Suspecting a tiger, the soldiers hunt for it and find two men in a tiger costume. The hostess introduces "The Middle of the Film," during which bizarre characters challenge the audience in a segment called "Find the Fish." "Middle Age" involves an American couple visiting a Hawaiian restaurant with a medieval torture theme, where, to the interest of the fish, the waiter offers a conversation about philosophy and the meaning of life. The customers are unable to make sense of it and move on to a discussion of live organ transplants. In "Live Organ Transplants", two paramedics visit an organ donor and forcibly remove his liver while he is alive. His wife is reluctant to donate her liver, but she relents after a man steps out of a refrigerator and reminds her of humanity's insignificance in the universe. Executives of an American conglomerate debate the meaning of life before a raid by The Crimson Permanent Assurance briefly interrupts them. "The Autumn Years" starts with a musician in a French restaurant singing about the joys of having a penis. As the song ends, the ill-tempered glutton Mr. Creosote enters the restaurant, causing the fish to scatter and hide. He vomits continually and devours an enormous meal. After the maître d'hôtel persuades him to eat an after-dinner mint, Creosote's gut explodes, splattering the other diners. In "The Meaning of Life", the restaurant's cleaning woman proposes that life is meaningless before revealing that she is a racist. A waiter leads the audience to the house where he was born, recalls his mother's lessons about kindness, and then becomes angry when his point trails off. "Death" features a condemned man choosing the manner of his own execution: being chased off the Cliffs of Dover by topless women in sports gear and falling into his own grave below. In a short animated sequence, despondent leaves commit suicide by throwing themselves from the branches of a tree. The Grim Reaper enters an isolated home and convinces the hosts and dinner guests, with difficulty, that they are all dead. They accompany the Grim Reaper to Heaven, revealed to be the Hawaiian restaurant from earlier. They enter a Las Vegas -style hotel where they meet the characters from the previous sketches, and Tony Bennett -esque singer begins to sing about how amazing life is where it is always Christmas and various commercial items that can be bought in Heaven are there. The song abruptly ends for "The End of the Film", where the hostess from "The Middle of the Film" opens an envelope and blandly reveals the meaning of life: Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.

The film begins with a pair of floating disembodied lips welcoming the audience to a science fiction double feature (" Science Fiction/Double Feature "). Throughout the film, a criminologist from an unspecified point in the future narrates and provides commentary on the events. Following the wedding of their friends, a naïve young couple, Brad Majors and Janet Weiss, get engaged and decide to celebrate with their high school science teacher Dr. Scott, who taught the class where they first met (" Dammit Janet "). En route to Scott's house on a dark and rainy night, they get lost and suffer a flat tyre. Seeking a telephone to call for help, the couple walks to a nearby castle (" Over at the Frankenstein Place ") where a party is being held. They are accepted in by the strangely dressed inhabitants, led by the butler Riff Raff, the maid Magenta, and a groupie named Columbia, who dance to " The Time Warp ". Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a transvestite mad scientist, introduces himself and invites them to stay for the night (" Sweet Transvestite "). With the help of Riff Raff, Frank brings to life a tall, muscular, handsome blond man named Rocky ("The Sword of Damocles"). As Frank vows he can improve Rocky into an ideal man in a week ("I Can Make You a Man"), Eddie, a motorcyclist with a bandaged head, breaks out of a deep freeze ("Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul"). Frank kills Eddie with an ice axe, justifying it as a " mercy killing ". Rocky and Frank depart for the bridal suite ("I Can Make You a Man (Reprise)"). Brad and Janet are shown to separate bedrooms, where Frank visits and seduces each one disguised as the other. Meanwhile, Riff Raff torments Rocky, who flees the suite. Janet, having learned of Brad's dalliance with Frank, discovers Rocky cowering in his birth tank. While tending to his wounds, Janet seduces Rocky as Magenta and Columbia watch from their bedroom monitor ("Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me"). Dr. Scott, now a government investigator of UFOs, comes to the castle in search of his nephew Eddie, who sent him a letter implying part of his brain was removed by aliens. Everyone discovers Janet and Rocky together, enraging Frank. Magenta summons everyone to an uncomfortable dinner, which they soon realise has been prepared from Eddie's mutilated remains ("Eddie"). In the chaos, Janet runs screaming into Rocky's arms, provoking a jealous Frank to chase her through the halls to the lab, where he uses his Medusa Transducer to turn Dr. Scott, Brad, Janet, Rocky, and Columbia into nude statues ("Planet Schmanet Janet/Wise Up Janet Weiss"/"Planet Hotdog"). After dressing the statues in cabaret costumes, Frank "unfreezes" them and leads them in a live cabaret floor show, complete with an RKO tower and a swimming pool ("Rose Tint My World"/"Don't Dream It, Be It"/"Wild and Untamed Thing"). Riff Raff and Magenta interrupt and announce that due to Frank's extravagance, they are declaring mutiny and returning to their home planet of Transsexual, Transylvania. Frank makes a desperate final plea ("I'm Going Home"), but is ignored as Riff Raff kills both him and Columbia with a laser. An enraged Rocky climbs the tower with Frank's body as Riff Raff shoots him several times with the laser, but it does not work on him. When they climb too high, the tower collapses and Rocky plunges to his death in the pool. The castle lifts off into space, and Brad, Janet, and Dr. Scott are left crawling in the smog and dirt, confused and disorientated, as the criminologist concludes that the human race is equivalent to insects crawling on the planet's surface: "lost in time, and lost in space... and meaning" ("Super Heroes").

In 1850 Oregon Territory, backwoodsman Adam Pontipee goes to town for supplies and to find a bride. He meets Milly, the pretty young cook at the town bar. Seeing her strength, hardworking attitude, and culinary skills, he proposes. She accepts and they immediately marry, but upon arriving at the Pontipee mountain homestead, Milly discovers that Adam has six younger brothers—Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank, and Gideon—who are uncouth and expect Milly to clean and cook for them. Milly angrily ruins dinner and retreats to the bedroom, where she bans Adam from their bed. Adam, unwilling to go back downstairs and face his brothers' mockery, crawls out the window to sleep in a nearby tree; eventually, Milly and Adam reconcile, with Milly regretting her high hopes concerning marriage. Milly begins teaching Adam's brothers hygiene and manners; eventually, this extends to advice on romance and courtship. At a town barn-raising event, the Pontipees display their newly acquired social graces as they meet Dorcas, Ruth, Martha, Liza, Sarah, and Alice, who are immediately attracted to the brothers. The women's initial suitors, overcome with jealousy, attack the Pontipees during the barn-raising. Although they keep their tempers initially, they fight back when Adam is attacked unprovoked. In the ensuing brawl, the barn is destroyed. As winter sets in, the brothers pine for their loves back in town. To console them, Adam reads from Milly's copy of Plutarch 's Parallel Lives about the Sabine women, whom the ancient Romans kidnapped to be their wives. Adam then claims his brothers should do the same to get their prospective brides. The Pontipees sneak into town at night and kidnap the women. As they race back to the homestead, the brothers trigger an avalanche that blocks the mountain pass, stopping their pursuers. However, the Pontipees realize they neglected to procure a parson to conduct the wedding ceremonies and are snowed in until spring. Milly is furious with Adam and the brothers and exiles them to the barn while the women stay in the house. Humiliated and angered by Milly's rebuke, Adam leaves for the Pontipees' trapping cabin to spend the winter alone. Over the winter, the women vent their anger by pranking the brothers, but their feelings gradually soften towards them. Meanwhile, Milly reveals she is expecting a baby. By springtime, the women and the Pontipees have happily paired off. When Milly has a baby girl, Gideon goes to inform Adam, who refuses to return. Gideon chastises Adam over his selfishness and behavior towards Milly. Adam returns after the snow melts and meets his daughter. He and Milly reconcile. Adam admits that being a father, he now understands how families feel about their daughters and tells his brothers they must return the women. The heartbroken brothers agree to take them home. However, the women hide and refuse to go back. As the brothers search, the women's angry families reach the Pontipees' homestead. As the townsmen sneak up to the farm, Alice's father, Reverend Elcott, hears a baby crying. Fearing the worst, he asks the women whose baby it is. They immediately conspire together and simultaneously answer "mine!" The fathers begrudgingly allow their daughters to marry the brothers in a collective shotgun wedding.

During the summer of 1958, greaser Danny Zuko and straight-laced Australian girl Sandy Olsson fall in love at the beach. As Sandy prepares to return home, she worries that she will never see Danny again, but he comforts her by saying that the summer is "only the beginning" for them. On the first day of his senior year at Rydell High School, Danny reconnects with the members of his greaser gang the T-Birds: Sonny, Putzie, Doody, and his best friend Kenickie. Sandy arrives at Rydell and is introduced to girls' gang The Pink Ladies—Marty, Jan and leader Betty Rizzo—by mutual friend Frenchy. At lunch, Danny and Sandy each separately describe their summer, unaware of the other's presence until Sandy mentions Danny's name, which the Pink Ladies recognize. At a pep rally, Sandy, now a cheerleader, flirts with Tom, a football player. Kenickie arrives in "Greased Lightnin ' ", a heavily used car he plans on restoring in order to drag race it at Thunder Road. Rizzo and the Pink Ladies surprise Sandy by reuniting her with a shocked Danny. Sandy is thrilled, but Danny makes fun of her to maintain his tough image. Frenchy invites her to a sleepover with the other Pink Ladies that night to make her feel better. At the sleepover, Rizzo makes fun of Sandy's good-girl image, and Frenchy announces she is dropping out of Rydell to go to beauty school. The T-Birds crash the party, and Rizzo leaves with Kenickie to have sex in Greased Lightnin' at a nearby make-out spot. While the couple is there, rival greasers Leo and Cha-Cha interrupt them. Danny motivates the T-Birds to work on the car by saying it will win them both girls and races. Later, he sees Sandy on a date with Tom and tries to apologize for his attitude at the pep rally, but she is unconvinced. Danny tries several sports in order to impress Sandy, eventually succeeding at track and field. Sandy, bored with Tom, agrees to be Danny's date to an upcoming dance at which the television show National Bandstand will do a live broadcast from the Rydell gym. Rizzo and Kenickie break up after a fight. After a disastrous beauty class, Frenchy reluctantly decides to return to Rydell to complete her high school education. At the dance, Rizzo and Kenickie bring Leo and Cha-Cha as their respective dates out of spite. In a ribald dance contest that ends with the T-Birds mooning the cameras, Danny begins the contest with Sandy before Sonny pushes Sandy off the floor and Cha-Cha cuts in. Danny and Cha-Cha win as Sandy storms off. To make it up to her, Danny takes Sandy to a drive-in movie and asks her to wear his ring. She accepts, but when he tries to make out with her, she flees the drive-in, leaving Danny hurt. Meanwhile, Rizzo fears that she may be pregnant, and tells Marty. When word reaches Kenickie, he offers to help, but she denies that he is the father. At Thunder Road, Kenickie's head collides with his own car door, leaving him concussed. Danny takes his place behind the wheel and beats Leo in the race. Sandy decides to change her image and asks Frenchy for help. At Rydell's graduation carnival, Rizzo discovers that she is not pregnant, and she and Kenickie get back together. Danny shocks the T-Birds by becoming a letterman, and Sandy shocks everyone with a new leather, "greaser"-style outfit. She and Danny reconcile and the whole gang vows to "always be together". Danny and Sandy drive off into the sky while their friends wave goodbye.

Gambler Nathan Detroit seeks to organize an unlicensed craps game, but the police, led by Lieutenant Brannigan, are "putting on the heat." Nathan's usual locations are turning him away due to Brannigan's intimidating pressure. The Biltmore garage will allow Nathan to hold a game, but the owner requires a $1,000 security deposit, which Nathan does not have. Adding to his problems, Nathan's fiancée, Miss Adelaide, a nightclub singer, wants to get married after being engaged for fourteen years. She also wants him to go straight, but his only talent is organizing illegal gambling. Nathan spots an old acquaintance, Sky Masterson, a gambler willing to bet on virtually anything and for high amounts. To win the $1,000 security deposit, Nathan bets Sky that he cannot take a girl of Nathan's choosing to dinner in Havana, Cuba. Nathan then nominates Sergeant Sarah Brown, a sister at the Save a Soul Mission, which opposes gambling. Sky pretends to be a repentant gambler to meet Sarah. Sky proposes a bargain: He will recruit a dozen sinners into the Mission for her Thursday-night meeting if she will have dinner with him in Havana. With General Matilda Cartwright threatening to close the Mission's Broadway branch due to low attendance, Sarah agrees to the date. Meanwhile, confident that he will win the bet, Nathan gathers all the gamblers, including a visitor that Harry the Horse has invited: Big Jule, a mobster. When Lieutenant Brannigan appears, Benny Southstreet claims they are celebrating Nathan marrying Adelaide. Nathan is shocked, but is forced to play along. Later, he realizes he has lost his bet and must marry Adelaide. Over the course of their stay in Cuba, Sky and Sarah begin to fall in love. They return to Broadway at dawn and meet the Save a Soul Mission band, which has been parading all night on Sky's advice. Police sirens are heard, and the gamblers, led by Nathan Detroit, flee out through the back room of the empty Mission where they were holding a craps game. The police arrive too late to make any arrests, but Lieutenant Brannigan finds Sarah and the other Save a Soul members being absent unlikely to be a coincidence and suspects Sky. Sarah is equally suspicious that Sky had something to do with the crap game at the Mission, and takes her leave of him, refusing to accept his denials. Sky still has to make good on his arrangement with Sarah to provide sinners to the Mission. Sarah would rather forget the whole thing, but Uncle Arvide Abernathy warns Sky that "If you don't make that marker good, I'm going to buzz it all over town you're a welcher." Nathan has continued the crap game in a sewer. With his revolver visible in its shoulder holster, Big Jule, who has lost all his money, forces Nathan to play against him while he cheats, cleaning Nathan out. Sky enters, knocks Big Jule down, and removes his pistol. Sky, who has been stung and devastated by Sarah's rejection, lies to Nathan that he lost the bet about taking her to Havana and pays Nathan the $1,000. Nathan tells Big Jule he now has money to play him again, but Harry the Horse says that Big Jule cannot play without cheating because "he cannot make a pass to save his soul." Sky overhears this, and the phrasing inspires him to make a bet: He will roll the dice, and if he loses, he will give all the other gamblers $1,000 each; if he wins, they are all to attend a prayer meeting at the Mission. The Mission is near closing when the gamblers arrive, filling the room; Sky won the bet. They confess their sins, though with little repentance. Nicely-Nicely Johnson however, recalling a dream he had the night before, seems to have an authentic connection to the Mission's aim, and this satisfies everyone. When Nathan tells Sarah that Sky lost the Cuba bet, which she knows he won, she hurries off to make up with him. There is eventually a double wedding in Times Square, with Sky marrying Sarah, and Nathan marrying Adelaide, while Nicely plays bass drum in the Mission's marching band.

In the early 1960s, a motown three-girl " Greek chorus " – Crystal, Ronette and Chiffon – introduce the film, warning the audience of some impending horror ("Prologue: Little Shop of Horrors"). Orphaned Seymour Krelborn and his co-worker, Audrey, work at Mushnik's Flower Shop in the rough, rundown Skid Row neighborhood of New York City, which they lament that they cannot escape ("Skid Row (Downtown)"). Struggling from a lack of customers, Mr. Mushnik decides to close the store, but Audrey suggests he may have more success by displaying an unusual plant that Seymour owns. Immediately attracting a customer, Seymour explains he bought the plant – which he dubbed "Audrey II" – from a Chinese flower shop during a solar eclipse ("Da-Doo"). The plant brings much business to Mushnik's shop but soon starts to wither. Seymour accidentally pricks his finger and discovers that Audrey II needs human blood to thrive ("Grow for Me"). Soon after, Audrey II begins to grow rapidly, and earns Seymour a spot on energetic DJ Wink Wilkinson's radio show, making him a local celebrity. Meanwhile, Audrey suffers at the hands of her sadistic and evil biker boyfriend, Orin Scrivello; however, she has feelings for Seymour and secretly dreams of being married and living happily with him in the suburbs ("Somewhere That's Green"). Seymour continues to feed Audrey II his own blood, draining his energy ("Some Fun Now"). He attempts to ask Audrey out, but she turns him down because she has a date with Orin, who is revealed to be a dentist who enjoys his patients’ misery ("Dentist!"). After Seymour closes up shop, Audrey II finally has a chance to speak to Seymour, demanding more blood than Seymour can give. The plant suggests that Seymour murder someone, promising to bring him fame and fortune that will impress Audrey. Seymour initially refuses but eventually agrees after he witnesses Orin physically and verbally abusing Audrey in the street ("Feed Me (Git It!)"). After Orin finishes with his masochistic patient, Arthur Denton, who had requested "a long, slow, root canal", Seymour draws a revolver on Orin, but cannot bring himself to use it. Orin, who abuses nitrous oxide, puts on a type of venturi mask to receive a constant flow of the gas, but breaks the valve, and Seymour watches as he asphyxiates. Seymour dismembers Orin's body and feeds it to Audrey II, which has grown to enormous size, but is unknowingly witnessed by Mushnik, who flees in fear. Audrey, feeling guilty over Orin's disappearance, is comforted by Seymour and the two admit their feelings for each other ("Suddenly, Seymour"). That night, Mushnik confronts Seymour about Orin's death. Holding Seymour at gunpoint, Mushnik threatens to turn Seymour over to the police but reconsiders and instead offers to stay silent and let Seymour flee Skid Row in exchange for the plant and its profits. As Audrey II opens its mouth to feed, Seymour begins to tell Mushnik how to care for the plant and backs him into the plant's reach. The plant swallows Mushnik whole ("Suppertime"). Despite widespread success, Seymour worries about Audrey II's growth and unbridled appetite ("The Meek Shall Inherit"). Torn between continuing his partnership with the plant and the thought of losing Audrey if he's no longer successful, Seymour becomes overwhelmed. Audrey congratulates Seymour on a contract for a botany TV show and tells Seymour the producers will return with the money the following day. Seeing a way out, Seymour proposes to Audrey, asking her to marry him that afternoon. He'll take the money in the morning and escape Skid Row with Audrey, leaving the plant to starve. After Audrey accepts Seymour's marriage proposal, Audrey II catches Seymour leaving and demands another meal: Seymour agrees but insists on meat from a butcher. While Seymour is gone, the plant telephones Audrey, coaxes her into the shop and attacks her ("Suppertime II").

The film tells the story of three protagonists: Benny Parrish, a young boy diagnosed with bipolar disorder whose troubled soul and vivid imagination create both suffering and joy for him and his complex and loving family; "CeeJay" (played by Cedric Thompson), a black teenager and aspiring football player who has taken refuge in Bombay Beach hoping to avoid the same fate of his cousin who was murdered by a gang of youths in Los Angeles; and that of Red, an ancient survivor, once an oil field worker, living on the fumes of whiskey, cigarettes, and an irrepressible love of life. Together they make up a triptych of American manhood in its decisive moments, populating the Salton Sea's land of thwarted opportunity. The New York Times writes, “ feels like a fever dream about an alternate universe. Suffused with a sense of wonder, it hovers, dancing inside its own ethereal bubble.” Har’el explains about the film, “This film can only serve to show glimpses into some of the larger issues one can pick out from these people’s lives and the way in which they live their lives in this particular place. All these things that can be perceived as wrong or right, or bad or good, all reside together, side by side. This is the human experience of life and that’s what I wanted to illustrate more than anything, how things co-exist, all the wrongs and the rights together, the love and the violence, the broken dream and the persistence of dreams. Even though the dream is broken, you can still see the people.” From Salon: “You either like this kind of ambitious, brave, borderless experiment or you don’t, and I think it’s absolutely magical and tragic. Maybe it took a foreign-born Jewish filmmaker to make a movie that seems so positively biblical (…) about the current conditions of America.”

The film begins with a reenactment of the gruesome act of cannibalism described by the prosecuting attorney during Alferd Packer's 1883 trial. During this sensationalized account, a haggard Packer repeatedly insists that was not how it happened. During a break in the trial, Packer is enticed by journalist Polly Pry to tell his side of the story, which he proceeds to do, via flashback beginning with his horse Lianne galloping in a field. In 1873, Packer was part of a group of miners in Bingham Canyon, Utah who hear of new prospects in Breckenridge. Together, the small group decide to travel together into Colorado Territory. Packer is appointed as the replacement for the original guide, since he claimed knowledge of the area. He and Lianne set off on what Packer estimates will be a three-week journey with a party of five miners: Shannon Wilson Bell, James Humphrey, Frank Miller, George Noon and Israel Swan. Four weeks later, while attempting to visit Provo for supplies they become convinced they are lost. They are given local warning them of impending doom awaiting them in the mountains. Finally arriving in Provo, they run into a group of three fur trappers bound for Saguache; O.D. Loutzenheiser, Preston Nutter, and their diminutive leader, Jean "Frenchy" Cabazon. The trappers despise the miners, whom they contemptuously call "diggers", yet seem to like Packer's Arabian horse, telling Packer that she's a "trapper horse". The next day, Packer wakes up to discover his horse Lianne is missing. The men attempt to cross the Green River near the Utah border. Eventually, after a disastrous crossing of the Colorado River the Packer party is spotted by two " Nihonjin " Indians. They are taken back to the tribe's encampment near Delta where the chief warns them of a winter storm, allowing them to wait it out with the tribe. Packer's party also find the trappers camping out with the tribe, a small altercation breaks out over Lianne, whose feedbag Packer finds in their possession. In the present time, Packer is sentenced to death by hanging, with his execution to occur in Lake City. That night, Polly reveals her growing affection for him through song. The next day, Polly visits Packer once again in prison, where he continues his story. The men set out in the wilderness and begin to suspect that Packer is really only interested in following the trappers to find his horse. They soon run out of food, resorting to eating their shoes as they become lost in the snow-covered Rocky Mountains. An optimistic Swan sings about building a snowman; Bell shoots him in the head out of frustration. The men discuss their dire situation that night over the fire, speaking of the cannibalism that the Donner Party had to resort to in California. They decide to consume the body of their dead companion as Miller cuts up Swan's body, and only Bell refuses to partake in the cannibalism. After a few more days, the party loses hope, which leads to talk of sacrificing one of their own. Packer convinces them for one more chance for a scouting trip, but when he returns, Bell has killed the others, claiming they planned to kill and eat him after Packer left. Packer is forced to throw a cleaver at Bell, seemingly killing him. He is then forced to cannibalize the others to wait out the rest of the winter. Arriving in Saguache sometime later, Packer finds Lianne, who has taken to Cabazon, upsetting Packer. The sheriff of Saguache, suspicious of Packer arriving without the rest of his party, eventually finds out the fate of the other members and attempts to arrest Packer for cannibalism at a saloon. A bar-fight between Packer and the trappers occurs, which Packer wins after brutally attacking Cabazon's groin using fighting techniques he learned from the Nihonjin chief, leaving Cabazon incapacitated. Following this, Packer attempts to flee to Wyoming, only to later be arrested there and brought back to Colorado to await judgment. However, he is saved at the last minute by Polly, who arrives on the scene with Lianne. Meanwhile, Cabazon, wants revenge against Packer for their fight in Saguache. The Nihonjin chief saves Packer by cutting his rope with a katana before beheading Cabazon. Packer, seeing that Polly brought back Lianne, he realizes he does not need her anymore and chooses Polly, the two kiss, only to be frightened by a still-alive but badly maimed Bell.