The professional mercenary Sir William Walker instigates a slave revolt on the Caribbean island of Queimada in order to help improve the British sugar trade. Years later he is sent again to deal with the same rebels that he built up because they have seized too much power that now threatens British sugar interests.
The story revolves around Evaristo who¸ accompanied by his drum¸ dreams of becoming a great figure and imposing his music on the whole world. Evaristo composes cumbias and more cumbias on his ranch and then in jail¸ where adverse situations take him. Meanwhile his delusions begin to come true¸ and without knowing it¸ his name and rhythm become famous.
A traveling gravedigger during an (unspecified) war adopts a orphan he finds alone in the desert. After the war with the orphan grown and business slow, the orphan begins to generate business himself by shooting people. The orphan wants to make one big score by robbing a bank but the gravedigger resists. Their dream is to open a fancy funeral parlor and cemetery. The orphan becomes obsessed with a prostitute he saw who was later abandoned by her outlaw partner after a robbery attempt on a gold wagon goes bad. He eventually leaves the gravedigger to find her
