The story centers around Juan Fernandez, the son of a Mexican printer who had published articles favorable to striking workers in the hydraulic power plants of Río Blanco, Veracruz. The workers were locked out, and federal troops were sent to kill them. Juan escaped the massacre by climbing over the bodies of the deceased, including those of his mother and father. He makes his way to El Paso, Texas where he comes into contact with the "Junta Revolucionaria Mexicana". Adopting the new name of Felipe Rivera, he volunteers to serve the cause at the office of the "Junta", whose personnel suspect his motives and put him to work doing menial labor. Soon, however, he is dispatched to Baja California to reestablish connections between Los Angeles revolutionaries and the peninsula. Exceeding his orders, he assassinates a federal general and returns to El Paso.