The Cheyenne are convinced that newly-arrived settlers have been killing the buffalo they traditionally depend on. When the Native Americans surround the 20th Cavalry’s fort, Lucky Luke realises that someone who bears a grudge against Colonel McStraggle has conveniently provided them with firearms. Worse, the traitor also knows the layout of the fort. Lucky Luke does his best to try and break the deadlock before the soldiers starve. As in other “Lucky Luke” volumes, readers discover different aspects of the United States’ conquest of the Wild West.

Bob, Grat, Bill and Emmett Dalton were fearsome bandits; terrors of the Old West; legends in their own time. Until Lucky Luke put a final end to their reign of evil.Joe, Jack, William and Averell Dalton, on the other hand, aren’t even footnotes in the back pages of newspapers. Bumbling, blundering and hapless, they nonetheless vow to emulate—and avenge—their prestigious relatives. But if their cousins couldn’t best the Lonesome Cowboy, do they really stand a chance?

Grand Duke Leonid of Russia is in Washington to sign a commercial treaty on behalf of the Tsar. But this larger-than-life aristocrat has read too much Fennimore Cooper and wants to visit the West. The US government is forced to agree to his whim—but wisely chooses Lucky Luke to escort him to the cattle capital of the West: Abilene. A good thing, too, because the Russian Grand Duke encounters real American desperadoes on his visit!

A general amnesty puts the Daltons back on the streets, something Lucky Luke isn’t happy about. And, to make it worse, they seem to have become model citizens. It’s all an act, though, and it doesn’t take long for the stupidest quartet in the West to be back behind bars. Luke is already riding off into the sunset... But he’s not counting on a riled-up Apache tribe that attacks the penitentiary where the Daltons are locked up...

When a huge bounty is posted on a Cheyenne man for the apparent theft of a pedigree horse, the bounty hunter Elliot Belt will stop at nothing to pocket it–not even at triggering a new Indian war if he has to. Lucky Luke must juggle keeping him in check, appeasing the irate Cheyenne, and trying to save the suspected thief from Old West-style summary justice. A cheerful homage to the golden age of Hollywood westerns.

Lucky Luke and Jolly Jumper arrive in Grass Town and make the acquaintance of Smith I, Emperor of the United States! A local rancher gone a bit looney after getting rich, he’s given his cowboys fancy uniforms and replaced their Colts with sabres, and he believes he’s the true ruler of the country. The citizens of Grass Town think he’s great fun, write him letters in the names of European monarchs, and publish his harmless proclamations in the newspaper. But is he truly harmless? And what will Luke do if something upsets the relationship between the Emperor and his not-so-loyal subjects?

At the end of the Civil War, many former soldiers turn to a life of crime to survive. Joss Jamon and his gang are among the worst of such men. After sacking the town of Los Palitos, they arrange for Lucky Luke to be arrested for their crimes. The lonesome cowboy, a rope already around his neck, is forced to make a deal with the angry citizens: Bring the real bandits back within six months or hang.