His father is killed, but Segundo escapes when a Mexican landowner named Hector rescues him and takes him home to be raised as his own son. Hector and Segundo are befriended by a Mormon family headed by a Bishop Merrill. Merrill is a polygamist. At one of his homes he engages a young girl named Marta. Marta and Segundo fall in love, but that love must be put to the side as Segundo sets out to avenge his father's death.
Hector has a similar agenda.
He wants to find, and kill, the man who murdered his wife and child. But he faces a difficult situation. But another part of him understands that dismissing these thoughts is easier said than done. Hector sets out to Mexico to kill his enemy and leaves Segundo in the charge of the Merrills. Here Segundo learns to read English, from the Book of Mormon.