Christopher Marlowe Cobb ('Kit'), the swashbuckling American newspaper war correspondent travels to Mexico in 1914, during that country's civil war, and the controversial presidency of Victoriano Huerta, El Chacal (The Jackal). Covering the war in enemy territory and in the sweltering heat, Cobb falls in love with Luisa, a young Mexican laundress, who is not as innocent as she seems. One day Kit witnesses a priest being shot, but the bullet ricochets off the cross he wears around his neck and leaves him unharmed. Cobb sets out to investigate the sniper.