 Set in the rural, often unexplored areas of Acapulco, Pelea de Gallos shows Chava and his wife Dolores enjoying a typical day. Later that evening he arrives home and plays around with a prize winning white-feathered rooster named "Sirenito" who was entrusted to him by his ruthless boss, Mario De la O. Well aware of his wife s disgust at the cock-fighting world, he desperately blends Sirenito with the other chickens to avoid a confrontation with his approaching wife. After a wonderful night of passionate love-making, Chava wakes up to a delicious pot of chicken soup. As he savors his wife s masterpiece, Sirenito s unmistakable leg floats to the soup s surface, and with this unexpected life-threatening tragedy Chava plummets even deeper into the macho society he was so eager to be a part of.Saturnino, an old and senile neighbor with a grudge against Chava, points him in the right but dangerous direction in Chava s desperate attempt to find an exact replacement for Sirenito. Following the old man s advice, Chava makes his way to a secluded ranch owned by Chucho, a fat insipid man who trains hundreds of fighting roosters. Sensing Chava s lack of experience, Chucho and his ranch-hands ceremoniously pummel him as a rite of passage. Failing to complete his search at Chucho s ranch, Chava resorts to searching in the local market-place. He remains unsuccessful until, out of the blue, he finds a male cross-dressing vendor called "La Guera" (Blondy) who has a white-feathered rooster for a pet. After an equally grueling battle involving a fist fight and guns drawn, Chava manages to take the rooster only after threatening to kill it with "Guera s" gun. His return to the Macho world, however, does not allow this victory. Mario De la O immediately discovers that the rooster is not his beloved "Sirenito". As a result, De la O shoots the replacement rooster s head off, beats up Chava, and forces him to fight at the city s largest and most prestigious cock-fighting championship. With no rooster in sight, no support from his wife, and Mario De la O s threat of killing him if he doesn t win, Chava learns his lessons and places all faith on a scraggly, untrained rooster. With luck, this may be Chava s only escape out of the world he once dreamed becoming a member of.