The story of Virgulino, the famous Lampião, who led a bunch of cangaceiros (as his followers were called) through the Northeast of Brazil, and became respected by poor local people, for his sense of immediate justice.
Pedro Boiadeiro goes after a gang of cangaceiros to avenge the brutal rape and death of his newly-wed wife.
A man's farm is attacked and his mother gets killed. Looking for revenge, he goes about chasing the men who killed her.
After trying to live weakly and always get lost, the cowboy João de Deus accepts the rules of the game: his grandfather Cansanção 'closes' his body and he is employed as a gunfighter of the 'colonel' Trajano.