» Chapter One: (2)
» Chapter Two: The blood-splattered BRIDE
» Chapter Three: The Origin of O-Ren
» Chapter Four: The MAN From OKINAWA
» Chapter Five: Showdown at House of Blue Leaves

A black-and-white sequence introduces us to The Bride (Thurman). She lies on a wooden floor, dressed in a wedding gown. Her face is covered in blood and bruises. A hand comes into frame, holding a handkerchief marked "Bill". Bill wipes some of the mess from her face, and he speaks to her softly, explaining, "this is me at my most masochistic." She replies, "Bill, it’s your bab-," but is cut off as Bill shoots her in the head.

The story continues in the first chapter, "2". The Bride, alive and well, drives up to the suburban California home of Vernita Green (Fox), codenamed "Copperhead", one of the members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. Copperhead answers the door and a vicious knifefight ensues, demolishing most of the living room. In the middle of the fight, Copperhead’s daughter, Nikki, arrives home from school and the two women conceal their knives in a truce. Over coffee, The Bride and Copperhead plan a final battle later that evening, but Copperhead tries double-crossing The Bride using a gun concealed inside a box of cereal. She misses, giving the Bride the opportunity to impale her with her knife. Unfortunately, Nikki witnesses the death of her mother. The Bride sheathes her blade, speaking calmly to Nikki and offering her a chance for revenge should she want it. The Bride returns to her car, a big, yellow pick-up truck named the "Pussy Wagon." Here, she looks at a notepad with the names of five people, including Copperhead’s, written under the title "Death List Five". She crosses out the name Vernita Green, and one can see that "O-Ren Ishii" has already been crossed out. It is during this chapter that the audience first hears the Bride's former code-name as a member of the Deadly Vipers -- "Black Mamba".

The second chapter, "The Blood-Splattered Bride", returns to a time shortly after the Bride's apparent death. A local lawman, Earl McGraw (Parks) surveys the crime scene, at which time it is revealed the Bride wasn't Bill's only victim - an entire wedding party has been massacred. McGraw discovers the body of the Bride, and it becomes obvious to him that she is still alive. Cut to a local hospital, where the Bride lies comatose. She is confronted by another member of Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, Elle Driver (Hannah), codenamed "California Mountain Snake", who, it is implied, has replaced her as Bill's lover. Elle plans to kill the comatose Bride, but at the last minute Bill phones her and orders her to abort the mission, since it would be beneath professional warriors to creep into a room "like a filthy rat" and murder a sleeping victim.

The story jumps ahead four years, as the Bride awakens with her memory of the assassination attempt intact. She bursts into tears on realizing that her unborn child is gone. At that moment, two men enter the room and the Bride fakes her unconsciousness. As it turns out, Buck, a hospital orderly, has been charging visitors to have sex with the comatose Bride for four years now. After killing Buck's customer, she then kills Buck and steals the keys to his pick-up truck - the Pussy Wagon.

From the back of Buck's truck, the Bride works to revive her atrophied legs as she narrates the story of the next chapter.

Chapter three, titled "The Origin of O-Ren", serves as the introduction of O-Ren Ishii (Liu), codenamed "Cottonmouth". This entire chapter is shown as an anime sequence. As a young child O-Ren witnesses the murder of her parents by members of Japanese Yakuza, led by Boss Matsumoto. She takes revenge on same Yakuza boss, slicing him open as she reveals her identity. So begins her career in crime. From this point, she earns a reputation as a very successful and ruthless assassin.

The story returns to the "present", as the Bride regains use of her legs.

In the fourth chapter, "The Man from Okinawa", the Bride boards a plane to Okinawa. There she searches for Hattori Hanzo (Chiba), a famous sword-smith. Hanzo has taken an oath to never make another sword, but is persuaded by the justice of her cause. It takes him a month to make her the best sword he has ever crafted, which she takes to Tokyo for her showdown with O-Ren.

In volume one's final chapter, "Showdown at House of Blue Leaves," O-Ren Ishii has become the first female leader of the Yakuza council. The Bride infiltrates O-Ren’s current hangout, a club known as the House of Blue Leaves. She follows Sofie Fatale, O-Ren’s best friend, lawyer and another former protege of Bill, into a bathroom, taking her hostage to lure out O-Ren. After calling O-Ren out into the club's dance hall, she slices off Fatale's arm. O-Ren dispatches her body guards to deal with the Bride, who proceeds to take on O-Ren’s henchmen, including O-Ren's personal bodyguard, the seventeen year-old girl named Gogo Yubari, who wields an altered meteor hammer with retractable blades. After killing the subordinates, she is confronted by the bulk of O-Ren's army, the "Crazy 88s."

They all suffer grisly death or mutilation by the Bride (with the exception of one very young "soldier", who is literally spanked with the blunt end of the Bride's sword and told to go home to his mother) in a sequence of sustained, graphic violence. At the end of this frenetic battle The Bride, looking for O-Ren, slides open a door which unexpectedly reveals the quiet of a snowy, Japanese garden in back of the club. After a dramatic swordfight, during which O-Ren's contempt for the Bride's skills changes to quiet respect, the Bride succeeds in scalping O-Ren with her blade, killing her. She deposits the dismembered Sophie Fatale at a hospital after extracting information from her. Sophie is patched up and later returns to Bill.

In the Volume's last line, Bill asks Sophie if the Bride knows that her daughter is alive, a fact of which the audience has thus far been kept unaware.