The film was a critical and commercial failure at the time, but has gained a new following and stature in the decades since.
Teresa, the pregnant teenage daughter of a powerful Mexican crime lord known only as El Jefe Spanish for 'The Boss' , is summoned before her father and interrogated as to the identity of her unborn child's father. Under torture, she identifies the father as Alfredo Garcia, whom El Jefe had been grooming to be his successor. The search progresses for two months.
In Mexico City, a pair of business suit-clad, dispassionate hit men, Sappensly and Quill, enter a saloon and encounter Bennie, a retired U. Army officer who makes a meagre living as a piano player and bar manager. The men ask about Garcia, believing they will have more luck getting answers out of a fellow American. Bennie plays dumb, saying the name is familiar but he doesn't know who Garcia is.
It turns out that everyone in the bar knows who Garcia is; they simply don't know where he is. Bennie goes to meet his girlfriend, Elita, a maid at a ghetto motel. Elita admits to having cheated on Bennie with Garcia, who had professed his love for her, something Bennie refuses to do. Elita tells him that Garcia died in a drunk-driving crash the previous week. Bennie convinces Elita to go on a road trip with him to visit Garcia's grave, claiming that he only wants proof that Garcia is in fact dead and no longer a threat to their relationship.
Bennie proposes to Elita, promising that their future will soon change and she can retire from her cleaning job. Elita warns Bennie against trying to upset their status quo. While having a picnic, Bennie and Elita are accosted by two bikers who pull guns on the couple. One of the bikers takes Elita aside. He cuts off her shirt, lets her slap him twice, slaps her back, then walks away; she follows and the two kiss. Bennie knocks the second biker unconscious and takes his gun.
