Outlaw Hawk Parsons notoriously successful in his pursuits has been caught by the local sherif of a New Mexico town in the 1850s The overly prideful sherif and his lawmen are outsmarted and Parsons escapes In the desert he falls in with a reverend his wife and their group of missionaries who hope to establish a church After coming under attack by a tribe of Native Americans Parsons strikes a deal in exchange for the safe keeping of the missionaries he takes the reverends wife for himself Ultimately a parable of Christian values the films narrative establishes and overcomes obstacles that test the virtue of men in the American West