A man's farm is attacked and his mother gets killed. Looking for revenge, he goes about chasing the men who killed her.
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.
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.