In the early nineteenth century, the Mission Guadalupe in Santa Fe is attacked by a band of unknown renegades and robbed of priceless treasures used during the morning ceremonial pageant. Some colonists vow revenge on The Hawk and his men, whom they claim to be the robbers. Because no one has been able to identify The Hawk, he has been called "The Phantom of Santa Fe." At a cantina near the mission, Steve Gant, an American, rebukes his gunman Kilbaine for letting The Hawk get away. After Gant announces that whoever delivers The Hawk to him dead or alive can name their reward, Miguel Morago enters, and Kilbaine swears that he is The Hawk. Gant just laughs, unable to believe that Miguel is the notorious outlaw, and vouches that Miguel was at the hacienda of Don Carlos Valarde, the wealthiest of the Spanish settlers, all day. Lola, a cantina girl, entices Miguel into her room and tells him she wants the reward more than anything because then she would demand that Gant marry her. As a wagon train belonging to Gant makes its way along the mesa, The Hawk, who actually is Miguel, and his men attack. After finding nothing they want in the wagons, they take two prisoners for questions and then, seeing Captain Rubio with soldiers approaching, spread out in retreat. At the Valarde rancho, Don Carlos expresses his delight to Gant that he will marry his daughter Teresa the next day, but their conversation is interrupted when they overhear Teresa say that she is in love with Miguel, whom Don Carlos thinks is a loafer, and will never marry Gant. When Captain Rubio arrives and reports the attack to Gant, Miguel sneaks up to the balcony and exchanges clothes with his servant Chico, who, disguised as Miguel, has been pretending to be sleeping on the balcony. Don Carlos gives Teresa orders not to have intimate conversations with Miguel, so they confess their love for one another through a drain pipe. Teresa responds to Miguel's vow that she will never marry Gant by saying that if Miguel were a man like The Hawk, he would carry her off on his horse to the hills. At the cantina, Gant makes plans to move the mission treasure across the border in a wagon train the next day during his wedding. Captain Rubio brings in Chico, whom he says is The Hawk, but when they see that he wears a false mustache, Gant thinks that Miguel may actually be The Hawk. In the hills, Miguel and his followers question their prisoners about the stolen treasure, which they believe Gant has hidden, but even under threat of death from being tied to wild horses, the prisoners refuse to talk. Admiring their loyalty, Miguel has them freed. The next day, as the wedding is about to begin, Miguel gives himself up to Lola and arranges for Gant and a padre to come to her room. When she demands that Gant now marry her as her reward for the capture of The Hawk, Gant refuses, so she reveals that the treasures are in one of the wagons heading for the border. Gant pulls a gun and tries to leave, but the padre says, "In the name of the Lord, stop," and a crucifix falls, knocking the gun from Gant's hand. Miguel struggles with him, and when Gant retrieves his gun, Miguel's follower Ramirez shoots Gant. Kilbaine, hearing Gant's warning call, races off with the wagons, but Miguel leads his men in pursuit. They torch the wagons and find the treasure, which Miguel gives to the padre. He then takes Teresa onto his horse and rides into the hills, where he reminds her of her wish.