When a nuclear holocaust casts Los Angeles into a second ice age, a small band of scavengers must contend with both the freezing cold and the demands of Slaughterhouse Joe, a cruel and greedy warlord. After the tribe is massacred in a fit of rage by the despot, Pak, the son of its leader and one of the few survivors, is taken under the wing of a taciturn old hunter. Growing in strength and fighting skill under the old man's tutelage, he returns to "Lost Angeles" to avenge his mother's death and free his kidnapped childhood love from the clutches of Slaughterhouse Joe, even if it means dying in the process.