Three disparate travelers, a disillusioned preacher, an unsuccessful prospector, and a larcenous, cynical con man, meet at a decrepit railroad station in the 1870s Southwest. The prospector and the preacher were witnesses at the singularly memorable rape and murder trial of the notorious Mexican outlaw Carasco. The bandit duped an aristocratic Southerner into believing he knew the location of a lost Aztec treasure. The greedy "gentleman" allows himself to be tied up while Carasco deflowers his wife. These events lead to the stabbing of the husband and are related by the three eyewitnesses to the atrocity: the infamous bandit, the newlywed wife, and the dead man through an Indian shaman. Whose version of the events is true? Possibly there was a fourth witness, but can his version be trusted? 19世纪末，传教士、探矿家和骗子在美国西部一个偏僻的小火车站等车。闲谈中他们讲起了最近发生的一桩著名的杀人案。声名狼藉的匪徒绢·卡拉斯被法庭宣判处以绞刑，因为他强奸了一名上校的妻子，还杀死了上校。这个案件扑朔迷离，当事人的说法都各不相同。卡拉斯的说法是：他先将上校绑了起来，然后把他的妻子强奸了，在最后的决斗中，他把上校杀了。而上校的妻子则是另一种说法：她说上校死在她的手上。法医的鉴定是：上校死于自杀。真实的情况究竟怎样？惟一的知情者探矿家目睹了事情发生的全过程，实际情况是：上校的妻子向卡拉斯卖弄风情，促使上校和卡拉斯展开决斗，而在决斗中，上校死在了自己的剑下。那把惟一可以作为物证的剑也被探矿家拿走。
