In Texas nearby the border of Mexico, border patrolman Mike Norton mistakenly kills the Mexican cowboy Melquiades Estrada and buries him in the desert. When Melquiades's body is found one week later, his best friend, the ranch foreman Pete Perkins, claims the body to fulfill his promise to bury Melquiades in his hometown Jimenez and presses the local sheriff Belmont to find the killer.