In 1746, on the lawless northern frontier of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Leon Alastray, a roguish Mestizo outlaw and deserter from the Spanish Royal Army, is wounded and driven into a church by a pursuing posse. A compassionate priest refuses to surrender him, even as the Bishop sides with the army. When the priest still resists, he is reassigned as pastor of the remote village of San Sebastian. The priest secretly smuggles the wounded man past the soldiers, and Alastray, who is both atheistic and anti‑clerical, accompanies him to the village in a mood of guilt and simmering anger.
Arriving at San Sebastian, they find the church barely standing and the village eerily deserted. They ring the church bell to summon any Christians, and the first response comes from a marauding vaquero who shoots the priest, mortally wounding him. Yet the ringing bell calls the villagers out from the surrounding hills, where they have been terrorized by Mestizo vaqueros and Yaqui Indians. The villagers mistake the wounded man for a priest, and, at first, Alastray denies it and is openly scornful, but a persistent village woman guides him toward leadership. With her encouragement, and aided by a sense of miracle the villagers believe they’ve witnessed, he decides to take on the role and organize the community. The moment marks a turning point, as the people begin to rally under a makeshift priest who is really (and increasingly) their protector.
The tension deepens as Teclo, the formidable leader of the Mestizo vaqueros, pretends to side with the villagers while secretly resenting the Spanish half of his blood. He aims to force the villagers to renounce Roman Catholicism and to live under his own rule in the hills. At the same time, Yaqui resistance is coordinated with Golden Lance, the Yaqui chief, creating a dangerous alliance that looms over the valley. Throughout this volatile dance of loyalty, Alastray—now leading the village—begins to oversee the construction of an irrigation dam, hoping to secure water and order for the people. But a brutal Yaqui attack follows and many villagers are slaughtered, driving a wedge of anger into the community and prompting the villagers to drive Alastray out.
Left to fend for himself, Alastray departs, with Kinita following. He confesses that he has spent his life just short of achieving something meaningful, and he sends Kinita back to the village. A storm of approaching riders suggests that danger is not over, and the two menacing figures—Teclo and Golden Lance—are seen together, signaling a new, grim alliance that could spell disaster for San Sebastian.
Seeking to tilt the balance, Alastray travels to the provincial capital and, by a cloak-and-dagger ploy with a former lover who is now the Governor’s wife, obtains muskets, gunpowder, and a cannon. With these weapons, he returns to the village and drives the villagers to believe they can resist. He tests a tentative peace overture toward Golden Lance, a move that holds possibility—until Teclo sabotages it, making a broader, imminent attack almost inevitable.
On the eve of battle, the villagers request that their improvised priest conduct a Mass. He reveals to them that he is not a priest, yet they accept him on faith, and the service doubles as a rallying moment. The villagers manage to repulse the Yaqui assault, but only after expending much of their gunpowder and resources. A keen-eyed village boy spots the full gathering of vaqueros and Yaquis preparing for tomorrow’s strike. That night, Alastray and a small group of villagers set charges on a mountainside overlooking the attackers’ gathering place, planning to unleash falling rocks at dawn.
Come morning, Teclo rides past and notices the exposed fuse. He cannot act in time, and the villagers shoot him down before he can interfere. The Yaqui force falters as the planned rockfall rains down, killing Golden Lance and others beneath the shattered hillside. With the surrounding threat largely erased, government authorities, the Bishop, and a new parish priest arrive to examine the village’s fragile peace. A military officer recognizes Leon Alastray during Mass and orders his arrest, but the villagers deploy a decoy and he escapes on horseback, taking Kinita with him. As they ride away, he tells her that he now believes in the Christian God.
