Durante la llamada Conquista del Desierto, el Mayor Sarabia es enviado al fortín Cruz del Sur para sustituir al Mayor Molina, asesinado en manos de los indios. Él es el único que puede frenar a Santiago, "el más rebelde de los caciques de la frontera sur, el único que no acepta la paz con el gobierno".
Based on a quechua legend, Malambo tells the story of a woman who lost her husband and son because of the greedy patrón of an hacienda. She swore that she would never remove the cloth over her eyes until her dead were avenged by the deaths of the patrón and his daughter. Nature seems to be on her side, since a drought has afflicted the land. Her other son, Malambo, accepts the duty of revenge. Malambo is no normal human: he is the runa-uturungo, or Hombre Tigre, of Quechua lore, and he cannot be wounded by bullets. He leads the obreros to rise in revolt and defeats the patrón. However, instead of killing the patrón's daughter--the blind Urpila --he falls in love with her, thereby breaking his mother's heart.
