寒冷的怀俄明州山谷中，一辆马车载着赏金猎人“绞刑者”约翰·鲁斯（库尔特·拉塞尔 Kurt Russell 饰）及其价值一万美元的猎物黛西·多摩格（詹妮弗·杰森·李 Jennifer Jason Leigh 饰）踏雪而行。途中，黑人赏金猎人马奎斯·沃伦少校（塞缪尔·杰克逊 Samuel L. Jackson 饰）和新人警长克里斯·马尼克斯（沃尔顿·戈金斯 Walton Goggins 饰）相继登上马车，红石镇是他们共同的目标。由于风雪太大，马车停在了米妮男装店，然而熟悉的店主人不知去向，却另有四名不速之客百无聊赖地待在店里。约翰时刻担心他人抢走猎物，马奎斯警惕地扫视面前的陌生人们，多嘴多舌的克里斯不时为紧张的气氛中加油添醋，黛西则似乎等待更大的风暴到来。 仿佛与世隔绝的小店内，即将刮起一场更为猛烈的风暴……
Lewis returns to Oxford after several years absence and is reluctantly assigned by his new boss, DCS Innocent, to the murder of an Oxford mathematics student who was shot while participating in a sleep study. The key-code used to access the sleep lab was assigned to a fellow maths student, Daniel Griffin, but Daniel's math tutor has provided him with an alibi. Daniel is a maladjusted young man who will soon inherit his father's automotive empire. He is disruptive and has no respect for his uncle who now heads the company. The future of the company however rests on an impending deal with Japanese investors who insist that family unity is all important at this time. When two other murder occurs, Lewis must decipher a cryptic clue left in an old case file by his former boss, Chief Inspector Morse.
