The year is 1820 and Don Diego de la Vega has returned to his home in Los Angeles to find tyranny and villainy running rampant through this once peaceful pueblo. The people cry out for help against the corrupt Ramon - the notorious governor who holds the town in his evil grasp. Disguised as the clever fox, Don Diego accepts the challenge to restore civility, order and justice... In a cloak of secrecy, he takes to the night and slashes his famous mark of vigilance into the very fabric of society - three slashes of the sword - the mark which gives hope to the oppressed and defines him as the original defender of justice - the infamous Z for Zorro.