In order to help the escaped fugitive Torres elude Captain Monastario's surveillance of his home, Don Diego decides that he must propose marriage to Torres' daughter.

When Captain Monastario arrests the fugitive Torres' wife and daughter, hoping to catch Zorro trying to rescue them, he instead catches Don Diego's chief vacquero Benito, who is in love with the daughter Elena.

After Zorro hides his wounded father in the secret cave, as Don Diego he must divert Captain Monastario and his soldiers who are searching for the old man.

Captain Monastario finally realizes that Don Diego must be Zorro, and arrests him, but a Viceroy from the King of Spain who is visiting the pueblo turns out to be an old friend of Diego's, and this is just enough to allow Zorro to turn the tables and have Monastario discredited.

A quiet day in the pueblo is abruptly changed when a stranger is killed by an arrow, apparently the victim of an Indian attack. Diego helps Sergeant Garcia inspect the body for clues and finds another mysterious eagle feather, this time on the fake Indian arrow. Other than that, there is no hint as to who the stranger was or why he was killed.

A peaceful protest by a group of peons upset with taxes turns violent when one of the Eagle's men throws a rock through the magistrado's window. Galindo uses this as an excuse to order severe measures against the peasants, a move that upsets Don Alejandro. The other landowners want to set up vigilante posses to punish the peons, but Alejandro argues on the side of reason.

Ramon Santil has just inherited his father's ranch and holdings, and some bad news. The magistrado tells him there's a high tax that must be paid at once or he will lose the land, and Ramon doesn't have the money to pay it. In desperation, he sells all of his cattle to Carlos Urista, a recent arrival in town whom Diego suspects as another of the Eagle's men.