A pregnant woman is shown caressing her stomach as she lies near a pond of swans. Two men inform tell her that her father, a powerful Mexican landowner known only as "El Jefe," expects to see her. El Jefe asks his daughter to her who the father of her child is. It isn't until his bodyguards break her arm, that she finally answers, "Alfredo García." El Jefe then offers $1 million to whoever brings him the head of Alfredo García.The search for García progresses as different people go across several Mexican places asking for anyone who has seen him. In Mexico City, a pair of business suit-clad, dispassionate hit men, Sappensly and Quill, enter a saloon and encounter Bennie, a retired U.S. Army officer who makes a meager living as a piano player and bar manager. The men ask about García, believing they will have more luck getting answers out of a fellow American. Bennie plays dumb, saying the name is familiar but he doesn't know who García is.It turns out that everyone in the bar knows who García is they simply don't know where he is. Bennie goes to meet his girlfriend, Elita, who is a prostitute, at a big hotel. Elita admits to having been with García, who had professed his love for her, something Bennie refuses to do. Elita informs him that García died in a drunk-driving accident the previous week.Excited by the possibility of making money by simply digging up the body, Bennie goes to Sappensly and Quill in the hotel room of the man who hired them, El Jefe's business associate Max, and makes a deal for $10,000 for Garcia's head, plus a $200 advance for expenses. Bennie convinces Elita to go on a road trip with him to visit García's grave, claiming that he only wants proof that Garcia is in fact dead and no longer a threat to their relationship.En route, Bennie proposes, promising that their future will soon change, and she can retire from her cleaning job. Elita warns Bennie against trying to upset their status quo. While having a picnic, Bennie and Elita are accosted by two bikers, who pull guns and decide to rape Elita. Bennie seems unsure how to react. Elita agrees to have sex with the bikers if they spare Bennie's life, then goes off with one of them. He rips off her shirt, lets her slap him twice, slaps her back, then walks away. Bennie knocks the second biker unconscious, takes his gun and finds Elita about to make love with the first biker. Bennie shoots him dead and kills the second biker as well.Bennie confesses to Elita his plan to decapitate García's corpse and sell the head for money. A disgusted Elita, still shaken from what has just happened, begs Bennie to give up this quest and return to Mexico City, where they can be married and live a modest life of relative peace. Bennie again refuses, although he agrees to marry Elita in the church of the town where García is buried. They find Garcia's grave, but when he opens the coffin, Bennie is struck from behind with his shovel by an unseen assailant. He wakes up to find himself half-buried in the grave with Elita, who is dead. García's corpse is then revealed to have been decapitated.Bennie learns from villagers that his assailants are driving a station wagon. He catches up with the men after they blow out a tire. Bennie shoots them, searches their car, and claims García's head. Stopping at a roadside restaurant, he packs the sack containing the head with ice to preserve it for the journey home. Bennie begins addressing the head as if García were still alive, first blaming Alfredo for Elita's death and then conceding that both of them probably loved her equally.Bennie is ambushed by members of García's family. They re-claim the head and are about to kill Bennie when they are interrupted by the arrival of Sappensly and Quill. The hit men pretend to ask for directions. Quill produces a sub-machine gun and murders most of the family, but is fatally shot by one of them. As Sappensly sorrowfully looks at Quill's corpse, Bennie asks: "Do I get paid?" Sappensly turns to shoot, but Bennie kills him. Bennie returns to Mexico City, "arguing" with García's head all the while.At his apartment, Bennie gives García's head a shower and then brings it to Max's hotel room. Feigning willingness to surrender the head for his $10,000, Bennie reveals he is no longer motivated by money; he says Alfredo was a friend of his and demands to know why Max and the others want his head so badly. He also blames Elita's death on the bounty and intends to kill everyone involved. Several men pull guns, but Bennie manages to evade fire and kill them all. He takes a business card from the desk with El Jefe's address on it.After finishing the baptism for his new grandchild, El Jefe greets Bennie as a hero and gives him a briefcase containing the promised million-dollar bounty. Bennie calmly relates how many people died for García's head, including his beloved. El Jefe responds apathetically, telling Bennie to take his money and throw the head to the pigs on the way out. Infuriated that the object responsible for Elita's death is viewed as nothing more than garbage, Bennie guns down all of El Jefe's bodyguards.El Jefe's daughter enters with her newborn son, causing Bennie to hesitate shooting El Jefe. She tersely urges Bennie to kill her father. Bennie obliges, taking along Garcia's head. Bennie drives away, only to be killed by El Jefe's men, their machine guns tearing him to pieces.