Emilio Fernández, a colonel in Pancho Villa's army, comes into a Mexican town to scoop up as many men as he can to attack a heavily fortified city in what seems like a suicidal attack.
María Félix is the titular soldier/groupie/party girl who tries to get Fernández's attention, but he's having none of it and orders all the women following the soldiers to leave.
The suicidal attack turns out to be a ruse that buys Villa enough time to attack the city from another direction. Fernández is hailed a hero, and he now wants to get close to Félix, but she's not having it. After some slapping and stripping, they fall in love. Everything seems fine until former lover Pedro Armendáriz shows up demanding satisfaction. Fernández dispatches him, but thinks that maybe Félix is too much for him and polite and proper war widow Dolores del Rio might make a better match.
The Mexican Revolution is the backdrop for a really fiery love triangle melodrama. This is pretty heated stuff and lots of fun.