The film tells the story of a ruthless landowner who commandeers property (both land and other men's wives) and leaves a path of human suffering and death in his wake. The film describes an intersecting universe of entrenched power--in which the landowning class, colluding priests, corrupt government officials, violent police, and U.S. businessmen--conspiring to rape the land for their own profit and to suppress the local farmers. In contrast, the working peasants cherish the land as their own and struggle to break free from oppression to build homes and better lives for their families.