A parable based on the life of Christ that takes place in a Western setting.

In the 1800s, a desert town in the West is ruled by the tyrannical Seaweedhead Greaser, whose constipated grimace is a reflection of the chronic condition of his bowels. At his ornate saloon, The Palace, Seaweedhead's daughter Cholera is painfully warbling an off-key tune to a rapt audience when a man dressed in a ghost's sheet approaches Cholera's brother Lamy and burns him with a lit cigar. Worried that the effeminate Lamy "may be a homo," Seaweedhead orders his son to leave town. As Lamy tentatively ambles down the road, Seaweedhead motions him to come back, then pulls out two long-barreled guns he has concealed in his boots and shoots him in the chest. Meanwhile, as a family in a covered wagon makes its way through the prairie, Jessy, a man dressed in a striped zoot suit and broad-brimmed hat, parachutes into a pasture. Back in town, as Seaweedhead is collecting taxes from the town's citizenry, he suddenly departs and runs to the outhouse on the roof of The Palace. At a signal, a mariachi band begins to serenade him in hopes of rousing his moribund bowels, but their efforts fail. That night, the family makes camp, and when the mother awakens the following morning, she discovers that the throats of her husband and son have been slit. After burying her husband and son, the woman continues on, but when she stops along a river bank, someone shoots her. Later, the "ghost" delivers Lamy's body to Jessy, who places his hands on Lamy's back and intones "If you feel; you heal." After Lamy miraculously comes back to life, Jessy explains that he is "on his way to Jerusalem to be an actor-singer" and that "it is written that the agent Morris awaits me." Soon after, Seaweedhead's lackeys announce that "Lamy Homo" is back in town. When Lamy rides into town on the back of a mule with Jessy, Seaweedhead pulls him down and stabs him, after which Jessy once again brings him back to life. Amazed, the townsfolk follow Jessy as he leads them to a river. After performing a somersault, Jessy dives into the water and surfaces on land, cementing his reputation as the Messiah. One of the townsfolk, a man dressed as a nun, becomes so overwrought that he tries to molest Jessy, but is stopped by the scandalized Padre. As news of Jessy's powers spread, the sick and infirm congregate to be healed by him. Back at The Palace, Lamy calls out Seaweedhead, who orders him jailed and tortured by having the mariachis blast their horns into his ears. Although badly wounded, the woman determinedly crawls through the desert sands. Jessy rides back to town just as the saloon bell tolls to announce that it is time for Cholera's performance. The townsfolk come running, and after a spirited dance, Cholera climaxes her act by stripping her clothes off in front of the audience. Jessy then requests permission from Seaweedhead to take the stage. Jessy's rousing boogie woogie rendition is met by silence from the audience until he raises his hands to reveal his stigmata similar to the wounds on Christ's hands. When the audience reacts with wild abandon, Cholera sulks because she has been upstaged by a "man with holes in his hands." Disagreeing with popular taste, Jessy's agent Morris declares the act "the worst thing he's ever seen." Later, Lamy and Seaweedhead reconcile after Lamy states that he no longer wants to die and offers to buy his father a drink, prompting Seaweedhead to proclaim that Lamy is "not a homo." After dancing a slow waltz with Lamy, Seaweedhead walks out of the saloon and withdraws to the outhouse. As Seaweedhead finally moves his bowels, The Palace erupts in a dazzling explosion. On the outskirts of town, meanwhile, Jessy has wild, passionate sex with Cholera, then accepts a ride from a cowboy who drops him off next to the "ghost." Jessy is protesting that he does not want to leave when a man in a white beard rides up and announces that "it is time." When Jessy refuses, arguing that he no longer trusts the man, the man orders him to "get moving." Reluctantly, Jessy walks into the desert, where he finds the dying woman and revives her. Now fully recovered, the woman nails Jessy to a cross. While Jessy dies, the woman's son and husband return to life, and as the three joyously embrace, the sun sets in a golden glow.