Dead Man follows William Blake (Johnny Depp) as he travels the extreme western frontiers of America. Lost and badly wounded, he encounters a very odd, outcast Native American, Nobody (Gary Farmer), who believes Blake is actually the dead English poet of the same name. Contrary to his nature, circumstances transform Blake into a hunted outlaw, a killer, and a man whose physical existence is slowly slipping away. Thrown into a world that is cruel and chaotic, his eyes are opened to the fragility that defines the realm of the living.