A beautiful teenage shepherdess named Adega sleeps one night with a mysterious pilgrim in a barn of impoverished and superstitious Galicia of the nineteenth century. The overwhelming fanaticism of the villagers motivates them to consider the outsider an envoy of Satan, reason why they deny him the lodging. The pilgrim, on the other hand, will react by cursing the people with plague and misery.

Jed (Tomas Milian) is an unlikely hero in this Italian western. As thoroughly unlikeable a robber as ever walked the West, he nonetheless robs from the rich and gives to the poor. Not only is he a murderous, ill-tempered sort, he is bad-mannered, too. When Sonny (Susan George) decides he should be her man and teach her how to be a proper outlaw, sparks fly.