Tubercular history professor Volonte goes to Texas for his health and falls in with brutal gunman Milian. While the civilised academic discovers the neo-fascist joys of raping and killing, the filthy bandit develops finer feelings and decides to help a community of post-Civil War draft-dodgers and dropouts fend off a tribe of vigilante scum.
The attempt to recast 1967 characters in 1867 is surprisingly amusing, with long-haired style bandits attracting pioneer groupies and a campfire hoe-down turning into a freak-out experience. Volonte is unusually restrained as the intellectual fanatic, lecturing on Nietzschean themes even as he is torturing an agent to death, while Milian overdoes the pouting puzzlement as the goofy hero.