"Don of the Black Serape" tells the story of Steve Doyle, a young American who served for a time in Pancho Villa's gringo battalion before joining the A.E.F. in Europe. The infamous "don" is an old man who wields political power in his district. In the same setting, "Senor Satan" is the story of whiskey running and drug-smuggling to the United States, and the efforts of an American federal agent to capture the leader. The title story is set on Coburn's home ground of Montana, where a young boy's rustler father has been killed by cattlemen.