Oregon, 1851 Eli and Charlie Sisters, notorious professional killers, are on their way to California to kill a man named Hermann Kermit Warm On the way, the brothers have a series of unsettling and violent experiences in the Darwinian landscape of Gold Rush America Charlie makes money and kills anyone who stands in his way Eli doubts his vocation and falls in love And they bicker a lot Then they get to California, and discover that Warm is an inventor who has come up with a magical formula, which could make all of them very rich