Rebellion is sweeping northern Mexico as peons attempt to gain freedom from wealthy land owners who treat workers and farmers like indentured servants or slaves. Periodically peons and vaqueros will visit Ricardo Montoya in the Arizona Territory, pleading with him to join the rebellion and lead the rebels who are continually being mauled by the Mexican Army.
Ricardo has become James Barringer. He has a new wife, Christina, and is content to manage the huge Barringer cattle ranch. James repeatedly turns down requests to lead the rebellion, claiming his responsibilities now lie with his family in the Arizona Territory.
James, his wife and grandmother, Victoria, travel to Hermosillo prior to taking a Clipper Ship cruise to San Francisco. Three assassins have been hired to kill James, but the plot fails, and the sea voyage is successful. James rescues a young Chinese girl from two sailors who are pursuing her in San Francisco. She has escaped from a slave ship that holds two dozen Chinese girls destined to be sold into prostitution in China Town. Barringer hires men and they attempt a rescue.
Apaches from Arizona and New Mexico territories escape from their reservations, band together and attack the Barringer logging operations, Victoria’s ranch headquarters and finally the rancho in northern Mexico that she has just purchased. Montoya warns leaders in a large farming community called White Valley that a band of nearly one hundred braves is preparing to sweep down through the valley, killing, plundering and kidnapping women and children. He organizes a defense strategy for hundreds of farmers and their families.
Ricardo has notified Mexican General Constantine Vorshoff as to the whereabouts of the Apache camps and his troops lie in wait for them to return. A huge battle ensues, and the canyon leading to their camps become a killing ground.
Montoya is finally drawn into rebellion when an elderly woman, who helped raise Ricardo after his Mexican mother died, is tortured by an Army Colonel and her fingers on one hand must be amputated. Ricardo breathes new life into the rebellion and turns a disheartened, disorganized group of peons and vaqueros into a fighting force that begins to win battle after battle against the Mexican Army.
Mexican President Benito Juarez, busy with another rebellion in the south, signs a proclamation granting amnesty to the northern rebels and allowing workers to live wherever they so desire. Montoya goes to Hermosillo to sign the document ending the rebellion and is among dignitaries on an elevated stage in the town square as an assassin climbs atop a building across from the ceremonial stage. Ricardo is the target and a shot rings out. Will destiny be denied or will fate intervene?
