Zorro

The story of the masked rider in Old California opens as Don Diego de la Vega is returning to California from Spain, where he has been studying for several years.

It is a calm morning in Spanish California, and Sergeant Dimetrio Lopez Garcia is putting up posters, with another soldier, which are asking for reward money for Don Ignacio Torres and the now famous Zorro.

Finding that Don Torres is in hiding at the Mission, Monastario forces the local Indians into hard labor until the Padre agrees to surrender the fugitive.

After failing in his attempt to sneak food to the fugitive in the Mission where Captain Monastario has laid siege, Zorro tries to scare the soldiers away by spreading a rumor about the mad monk who supposedly haunts the place.

In order to help the escaped fugitive Torres elude Captain Monastario's surveillance of his home, Don Diego decides that he must propose marriage to Torres' daughter.

When Captain Monastario arrests the fugitive Torres' wife and daughter, hoping to catch Zorro trying to rescue them, he instead catches Don Diego's chief vacquero Benito, who is in love with the daughter Elena.

The second season of Zorro opens with Don Diego and Bernardo visiting Monterey, California. They have been sent there by a group of Los Angeles investors to look over an import business. The visitors have barely arrived in town when two men burst into their room and demand the investors' money.

Diego continues his investigation into Señor Verdugo's business by riding to his house, where Verdugo greets him and Bernardo with his arm in a sling. Although Verdugo claims an old injury is bothering him, Diego suspects he may be the leader of the robbers, so he sets a trap.

Lieutenant Rafael Santos is ambushed on his way to Monterey and left for dead when the ambushers take his identification and uniform. One of them, a killer named Anastacio, puts on the uniform and rides to Verdugo's, where Diego is discussing the investment deal.

After the Verdugos return to Monterey, Anna Maria enters their home and discovers that her father is missing. Pablo, their former servant, tells her the old man is being held hostage and will be killed unless she hands over 45,000 pesos believed to be in the house.

The kidnappers send word that Anna Maria must meet them if she wants proof her father is still alive, but Diego warns her it is a trick. Romero argues that she must go, so she agrees to go with him, Garcia and Reyes.

Before he returns home, Sergeant Garcia angers Theresa, a tamale vendor, when he tries to carry out the orders of the acting governor. Luis Rico has decided that all of the vendors must be removed from the plaza despite their objections, and Diego promises Theresa he will try to help.