A satellite draws strange images on the surface of the planet Earth in South America. The police believe it was a prank by a hacker who hacked into the satellites mainframe. Jet and Faye go to Earth to try and find the hacker. Jet goes to find out what kind of hackers work the area. Jet finds out that 'Radical Edward' is responsible, but they soon find out that this is going to be different than they anticipated.
In the year 2071 humanity has colonized the entire Solar System through the use of 'Phase Difference Space Gates'.
A catastrophic accident occurred during the development of the Gates, damaging both the Earth and the Moon, heavily irradiating the surface, and forcing most of mankind to evacuate to other planets of the Solar System.
Wherever humanity goes, so goes its criminal element, and thus the need for those who hunt criminals. The newly formed solar system police reinstated the bounty scheme of the Wild West. Cowboy Bebop is the story of the four inhabitants of the spaceship Bebop, and the living they barely make at bounty hunting.