The story opens in 893 A.D. in Iceland. Thor has just defeated a Frost Giant that had terrorized the inhabitants of a local village. Thor is enjoying the village's food, ale and women when he is suddenly interrupted by a shriek. The shriek is from a little girl who claims to have found a "devil man" in the water. Thor and the others go to investigate and find the severed head of a Native American. Thor tells them that he head belongs to a slain god. The villagers question what could have done this to a god since he has been butchered and not attacked by a beast. Thor dismisses their concerns, telling them that whatever it was is no match for him and orders a funeral pyre built for the dead god.

In the present day, a little girl on the planet Indigarr prays to Thor for rain on her barren world. Thor appears and conjures a great rainstorm and breaks the ground, revealing underground water currents. Thor is invited to feast with the little girl's people and tells them stories of the wonders of Asgard. After the festivities, Thor asks one of the elders why the little girl did not pray to their own gods. The elder informs Thor that Indigarr does not have any gods. When Thor questions this, the elder tells him that there are old stories about gods from long ago who lived in the sky but that no one believes those stories anymore. Thor goes to investigate and finds a palace in the sky. He searches the many rooms but finds no sign of life. After entering a room with a chained door, he finds the corpses of all the gods of Indigarr. He notes that since godlfesh rots slowly, they've been dead for hundreds of years and whoever did this took great pleasure in the act. Thor is attacked by a lizard-like creature and suddenly realizes that the killer of these gods is Gorr the God Butcher, someone he faced over 1000 years ago in Iceland.

Many millennia from the present, a broken down, old Thor with one eye and one arm sits on the throne of an empty Asgard. Thor curses the silence of the empty Asgard and resolves that if he is to die, he will die in battle. He calls for someone to bring him his arm, before remembering that there is no one to do so. Armed with Mjolnir and the Odinsword, Thor leaps into a horde of lizard-like creatures (like the one he faced on Indigarr) and vows the death of Gorr the God Butcher.

---