The Old West was full of itchy trigger fingers, but also had its share of hemp necktie enthusiasts. Lucky Luke is not a fan of such summary justice, and when he interrupts an improvised hanging with no less than three ropes for a single man, he runs afoul of an unpleasant individual with a knack for manipulating bored and drunk crowds … Seven short stories by Goscinny and his friends and illustrated by Morris himself – pure Lucky Luke concentrate!

Arriving in Cattle Gulch, Lucky Luke runs into an unexpected scene: an apparent crackpot called Ovid Byrde is about to get lynched. The man’s revolutionary opinions – animal welfare and the sanctity of life – aren’t particularly well-received in this town full of ranchers and cowboys! After Luke intervenes, though, the locals simply ignore Byrde … until he suddenly finds gold, and a pack of unscrupulous bandits take advantage of the poor idealist to establish a vegetarian dictatorship!

Travelling to the northern state of Wisconsin, Lucky Luke finds a population deeply depressed by a beer shortage that has caused all saloons in the area to close. Desperate, the inhabitants of New München beg Luke to talk to the brewers of Milwaukee. But the cause of the shortage is a strike, and the cowboy is more used to chasing outlaws in the Great Plains than to forcing negotiations between unions and bosses in a city where the first skyscrapers are already sprouting …