The year is 1910 and two people dance at the edge of the whirlwind known as the Mexican Revolution. Sonia de la Ontiveros is a beautiful young woman who comes to Mexico City from Sonora to be the nanny for her young cousins. Joaquin Cota is a vaquero in Chihuahua. Sonia’s uncle is an associate with Francisco Madero, the man who instigates the revolt from the oppressive regime of Porfirio Diaz. Sonia becomes involved with Captain Ramon Carvajal, a handsome young army officer, but he is the epitome of the plastic, tainted society Madero struggles against.

Joaquin is busy on the ranch where his family has lived for generations. He is not politically minded, but he knows it is not fair that only foreigners own land in Mexico, such as the ranch where he and his family slave away yet they slip further into debt due to overbearing taxation. Revolution finally erupts. Madero’s forces drive Diaz out of Mexico. But it is costly for Sonia. She has to break off with Ramon as she accepts the reality of their polarity. And her uncle is killed.

Joaquin learns there is a new president of Mexico…but it means little to him. He and his family are still peons on a ranch that belongs to a foreigner. Sonia returns to her family in Sonora. A year and a half later, Sonia visits her former charges in Mexico City. Those who are displeased with Madero rise up, assassinate him and Victoriano Huerta, the next in a corrupt line, takes control. Sonia returns to Sonora, thoroughly discouraged. Revolutionaries strike the ranch in Chihuahua and Joaquin joins Pancho Villa’s Division of the North rather than fight them.