In this prologue to the horrific and comedic story of Henry Hill's encounters with outlaws, demons, angels, and religious fanatics in the Old West, a gang of bandits murder an old prospector who has discovered the mother lode. When they blast their way inside, they discover more gold than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes, and a pool of magical water that makes the gold irrelevant. Meanwhile, the traveling salesman and inventor Henry Hill is plagued by nightmares of demons and monsters. He finds his way to the rough frontier town of Dry Gulch, where he quickly learns that snake oil salesmen aren't well-regarded around these parts.