On a hot day in July, 1923, armed men lie in ambush as a 1923 Dodge rumbles along the streets of Parral, Chihuahua. Gun fire fills the air, riddling the car. The passengers lie bleeding on the street and Pancho Villa, hero of the Mexican Revolution, is dead. President Plutarco Calles rewards those who have removed his most vocal critic with positions of power, but peace eludes him. The Zapatistas continue to fight. Midst the violence, Captain Rafael Garcia struggles to balance his ideals of duty to country and the peasants' fight for liberty, his loyalty to the army and his love for Julia, a university student who supports the Zapatistas. Ambition turns the president's friends into enemies, and catches Rafael in a web of intrigue, a plot to assassinate the president. He must choose to sacrifice his life or lose every thing he holds dear. Some of the passages describe explicit sexual behavior.