The townspeople are building an embankment (dam) during the storm season for when the river overflows. Some new debt collectors threaten the man in charge to pay up - he can't and the townspeople protect him. One of the debt collectors is a swordsman hired to handle Zorro. A plot is created to destroy the town's embankment, have the South Indian Trading Company build a new one (which they will monopolize), and get Zorro and the people's money in the process. The debt collectors come back and trap Zorro in a net in the overflowing river...