Waldo Trumbull is running his father-in-law’s funeral home business. Hounded by his landlord, Trumbull and his assistant devise a way to make death pay: by increasing their customer base through murder and burying the secrets of their success.

Among the pioneers of the untamed Oregon Territory of the 1850s are pack-mule express owner Logan Stuart, light-fingered banker/gambler George Camrose, Camrose’s fiancée Lucy Overmire, a villainous outlaw named Honey Bragg and gunfighter Johnny Steele, the friend of a man Camrose has killed.