Plot summary

On the Mexico-United States border 100 years ago in the year 1866, a drifter (Franco Nero), wearing a Union army uniform and dragging a coffin, witnesses Mexican bandits tying a runaway prostitute, María (Loredana Nusciak), to a bridge and whipping her. The bandits are dispatched by henchmen of Major Jackson (Eduardo Fajardo) - a racist ex-Confederate officer - who prepare to kill María by crucifying her atop a burning cross. The drifter, who identifies himself as Django, easily shoots the men, and offers María protection. The pair arrive in a ghost town, populated by Nathaniel (Angel Alvarez), a bartender, and five prostitutes. Nathaniel explains that the town is a neutral zone in a conflict between Jackson's Red Shirts and General Hugo Rodríguez's (José Bodalo) revolutionaries.Jackson and his men arrive at the saloon to extract protection money from Nathaniel. Django verbally confronts two of the Klansmen when they harass a prostitute, and ridicules Jackson's beliefs. Django then shoots his men, and challenges Jackson to return with all of his accomplices. Afterwards, he goes upstairs and seduces María when she thanks him for his protection.Jackson returns with his entire gang. Using a machine gun contained in his coffin, Django guns down much of the Klan, allowing Jackson and a handful of men to escape. While helping Nathaniel bury the corpses, Django visits the grave of Mercedes Zaro, his former lover who was killed by Jackson.Hugo and his revolutionaries arrive and capture Jackson's spy, Brother Jonathan. As punishment, Hugo cuts off Jonathan's ear, forces him to eat it, and shoots him in the back. Later, Django proposes to Hugo, who he had once saved in prison, that they steal Jackson's gold, currently lodged in the Mexican Army's Fort Charriba on the other side of the border.Nathaniel, under the guise of bringing prostitutes for the soldiers, drives a horse cart containing Django, Hugo and four revolutionaries, two of whom are named Miguel and Ricardo, into the fort, allowing them to massacre many of the soldiers; Miguel uses Django's machine gun, while Django, Hugo and Ricardo fight their way to the gold. As Django and the revolutionaries escape, Jackson gives chase, but is forced to stop when the thieves reach American territory. Django asks for his share of the gold, but Hugo, wanting to use it to fund his attacks on the Mexican Government, promises to pay Django once he is in power.That evening, when Ricardo tries to force himself onto María during the post-heist party, a fight erupts between Django and Ricardo, resulting in the latter's death. Hugo allows Django to spend the night with María, but he chooses another prostitute. Django has the prostitute distract the men guarding the safe house containing the gold, and enters the house via the chimney. Stealing the gold in his coffin and activating his machine gun as a diversion, Django loads the coffin onto a wagon. María implores Django to take her with him.The next morning, Djiango and Maria arrive at the bridge where they first met. Django tells María that they should part ways, but María begs him to abandon the gold so they can start a new life together. When María's rifle misfires, the coffin falls into the quicksand below. Django nearly drowns when he tries to recover the gold, and María is wounded by Hugo's men while trying to save him. Miguel crushes Django's hands as punishment for being a thief, and Hugo's gang leave for Mexico. Upon arrival, the revolutionaries are massacred by Jackson and the Mexican army. Django and María return to the saloon, finding only Nathaniel there, and Django tells them that, despite his crushed hands, he must kill Jackson to prevent further bloodshed.Jackson learns that Django is waiting for him at Tombstone Cemetery and kills Nathaniel, but not before the latter hides María. Django, resting himself on the back of Mercedes Zaro's cross, pulls the trigger guard off his revolver with his teeth and rests it against the cross, just as Jackson's gang arrive. Believing that Django cannot make the sign of the cross with his mutilated hands, Jackson shoots the corners of Zaro's cross. Django then kills Jackson and his men by pushing the trigger against the cross and repeatedly pulling back the hammer. Leaving his pistol on Zaro's cross, Django staggers out of the cemetery, ready to start a new life with María.