Ramon Armonjillo is a teenage boy from the Mexican village of Chimayo. When Ramon is involved in a cock-fighting incident, a biased American judge sentences him to be executed. But after Vaillant comes to take Ramon’s confession, he is struck by the young man’s strong religious faith, as well as his care for his family and community. Indeed, Vaillant wishes that all of so-called “criminals” could be as morally upright as Ramon.