In St. Paul, Minnesota, during the long hard winter, two friends discover a corpse in the trunk of their car during a road trip and are left trying to disposed of it without being detected. They along with a colorful cast of interconnected characters, are caught up in the warfare between rival gangs and the fall-out from a serial killer on the loose. Murder, violence, two hopelessly thwarted robberies, disemboweling by wild animals, car chases, and even romance culminate in a tense and explosive showdown in the eponymous "Blood Menagerie," where only the fittest survive.