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.
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.