John Howland travels to the frozen North to build a branch of the Hudson Bay Railroad. There he meets and falls in love with Meleese Thoreau who warns him that her three bloodthirsty brothers, Max, Pierre and François, have sworn vengeance against a man named John Howland, the son of a man who killed their mother, and that torture and death await him along the route to his station.
After being unfaithful to "The Stranger", who committed a murder on her account, Cherry Millard, known as "The Siren", leaves to work in a dance hall in the Western town of Nugget.
Perfect angel Willie declines to accompany his doting wife Dolly to a mask ball, but instead of a quiet evening at home among his books, Willie spends the night at an underground casino, and instead of being chaperoned at the party, Dolly is out flirting with another man.
Artist Henry is wildly jealous of his girl Flossie so when he sees her in the arms of another man he overreacts and tries to end it all in a variety of over the top ways.
While traveling to meet her sweetheart, Richard Carr, in the capital of the Grand Duchy of Bonaluria, Peggy Dare's train compartment door is thrust open and a little boy is thrown at her feet.