In January 2006, Lorne Malvo passes through Bemidji, Minnesota and influences put-upon insurance salesman Lester Nygaard with his malice and violence. Meanwhile, Deputy Molly Solverson and Duluth police officer Gus Grimly team up to solve a series of murders they believe may be linked to Malvo and Nygaard.

Season two's chapter takes you back to 1979 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Luverne, Minnesota. Lou Solverson, a young State Police Officer recently back from Vietnam, investigates a case involving a local crime gang, a major mob syndicate and small town beautician Peggy Blumquist along with her husband Ed, the local butcher’s assistant. Helping Lou piece things together is his father-in-law, Sheriff Hank Larsson. The investigation will lead them to a colorful cast of characters that includes Karl Weathers, the town lawyer of Luverne, Minnesota; Joe Bulo, the front man for the northern expansion of a Kansas City crime syndicate with his number two, Mike Milligan; and the Gerhardt crime family currently led by matriarch Floyd Gerhardt.

December 2010, Minnesota. Emmit Stussy, the Parking Lot King of Minnesota, is a handsome, self-made, real estate mogul and family man - an American success story. His slightly younger brother, Ray Stussy, on the other hand is more of a cautionary tale. Balding, pot-bellied, Ray is the kind of guy who peaked in high school. Now a parole officer, Ray has a huge chip on his shoulder about the hand he's been dealt, and he blames his brother, until the arrival of a mysterious personality changes everything.

In 1950s Kansas City, Missouri, two criminal syndicates have struck an uneasy peace. One Italian, one African-American. Together they control an alternate economy — that of exploitation, graft and drugs. This too is the history of America. To cement their peace, the heads of both families have traded their youngest sons.

After an unexpected series of events lands Dorothy "Dot" Lyon in hot water with the authorities, this seemingly typical Midwestern housewife is suddenly plunged back into a life she thought she had left behind.