The prequel is set in Mexico in the early 1900s and begins with an American author, Ambrose Bierce, experiencing a nightmare in which he dies at the hands of Pancho Villa. Bierce wakes and talks to a local bartender about his intentions to join Pancho Villa's revolutionary army. He joins a stagecoach transporting a newly-wed couple, John and Mary Newlie, who are Christian mission. Meanwhile, Johnny Madrid, a dangerous local outlaw, escapes from the gallows and kidnaps his hangman's beautiful daughter, Esmeralda. Madrid receives assistance from Reece, a young woman who wants to become Madrid's apprentice as an outlaw. With the hangman and a local posse on their trail, Madrid meets with his gang. They later rob Bierce's stagecoach because of Reece's belief that Bierce possesses an invaluable object. The gang doesn't find anything of value, with Bierce claiming he is the invaluable object, as he intends to join with Pancho Villa. Annoyed by this, Madrid leaves Reece hanging in the desert. She is found by the posse who use her to track the two.