On the Mexico-United States border, a drifter (person), wearing a Union Army uniform and dragging a coffin, witnesses Mexican bandits tying a runaway prostitute, María, to a bridge and whipping her. The bandits are dispatched by henchmen of Major Jackson – a racist ex-Confederate States of America officer – who prepare to kill María by crucifixion her atop a burning cross. The drifter, who identifies himself as Django (character), easily shoots the men, and offers María protection. The pair arrive in a ghost town, populated by Nathaniel, a bartender, and five prostitutes. Nathaniel explains that the town is a Neutral zone (territorial entity) in a conflict between Jackson's Red Shirts (United States) and General Hugo Rodríguez's revolutionaries.