The Eagle and his men, after seizing control of northern California, seek now to take over the south, setting up operations in Los Angeles in the tavern/inn at the cuartel. Meanwhile, Commandante Toledano leaves the cuartel for temporary duty in San Diego, putting Garcia back in charge. Garcia is warned that stolen gunpowder was heading toward Los Angeles. Neither know that the Capitan's wife is one of the Eagle's brood. Vargas arrives, suspects Diego of being Zorro, captures him and dresses him as the Fox. Zorro escapes, and alerts Garcia to get the stolen gunpowder to safety up north.; Garcia discovers that all the gunpowder in the cuartel has disappeared and been replaced with charcoal (a plot that will make Los Angeles indefensible). He informs Diego of this, then questions people at the cuartel, including Raquel Toledano, agent of the Eagle. Zorro intervenes and learns from Raquel that Garcia has been lured into the countryside by Fuentes and Quintana in order to kill him. Zorro rescues him, but the inn keepers and Espinoza hatch another plot to do away with the acting Commandante, and finally Zorro stops them for good, Raquel then joining her husband to return to Spain.; Diego and Bernardo arrive in Monterey to see Senor Verdugo, but are robbed of what they have the first night in town. When Diego sees Verdugo, he tells him of this and the fact the robbers knew where Diego would be and that he might be carrying 17,000 Pesos for supplies from Spain to aid the people of Los Angeles. Bernardo is later taken prisoner and the crooks blackmail Diego for the 17,000 Pesos to get Bernardo back alive. Bernardo is rescued, then Diego learns that Verdugo's servant is behind the plot to steal the Pesos.; As she closes her flower stall, Lita witnesses the murder of Tomaso, and the killer, Zuloga, sends Sergeant Garcia off on a wild goose chase so that he can find the girl and kill her, even hiring thugs to do the job. Diego suspects that the girl is the one Zuloga is after, so he takes up the mantel of Zorro to investigate, then decides to accompany the girl as Diego to San Diego to protect her. Zuloga's men attack the stage, but are captured by the Fox and sent back to Los Angeles for trial and to testify against Zuloga.; In 1820, Don Diego returns home from Spain at his father's request, due to the tyranical rule of the pueblo's new Commandante. He decides on the trip over to adopt the guise of a fox to diffuse suspicion from himself when he becomes a man of action, and that his servant will play the part of a deaf and dumb man in order to gather vital information. After listening to his father's recounting of the events on-going in the pueblo, Don Diego decides on a secret course of action to fight Monastario: as Zorro, the Fox! His first assignment is to free a local landowner from false imprisonment.; While Diego shows Bernardo a secret passage through the fireplace to a cavern where he hides out Tornado, Capitan Monastario issues a large reward for the capture of Senor Nacho Torres. While Torres hides out at a local mission, the Capitan seeks to learn the identity of Zorro and arrests a look-alike vaquero named Avila, hoping to draw the real Zorro out of hiding.; Zorro sneaks into the cuartel one night and puts up a Zorro flag, which angers the Capitan. When Garcia attempts to take the flag down, he falls from the greased flagpole into the Commandante and nearby vaqueros laugh. When the Capitan arrests them for laughing at him, he puts them to work repairing the stable roof and orders them to be done by sunset. Then the Capitan "fires" Garcia so he can act as a spy and locate the whereabouts of Zorro, which he does. But Zorro has a big surprise for the Commandante and Garcia!; Word is brought to the Capitan of Nacho Torres' hiding place, so he and the Lancers head out to the Mission San Gabriel, and discover that Torres has been given sanctuary. Monastario decides to leave Garcia in charge of catching Torres after sanctuary has ended, and also puts all of the Indians at the mission on detail to prevent them from picking the orange crop. Zorro makes a surprise visit to free the Indians from their forced labors.; Monastario rubs salt in the wounds of Padre Felipe when he forces a mission Indian to confess that the freed Indians plan to come back and burn the mission. Don Diego has a plan in mind to frighten Sergeant Garcia and the Lancers with a tale of a mission ghost, allowing Inocente to be freed from the clutches of the Commandante.; An unusual sight greets Los Angeles as Don Diego is being brought in, under arrest, by Sergeant Garcia, having been charged with being Zorro. Then the Capitan is notified that the Viceroy is going to make an unexpected visit, Monastario orders the jails emptied and a feast planned, all in order to look good. But the stunner will be the unmasking of Zorro to impress the Viceroy and his daughter! The Viceroy turns the tables on Monastario and later has him and Pina arrested, putting Garcia in charge of the pueblo.; Bernardo, after surviving several near accidents, accompanies Zorro as he heads out, trying to trace the whereabouts of a kidnapped girl named Maria. The masked Robin Hood uses Bernardo to send the Lancers out on a false lead after Zorro so that the Fox can locate the girl. All are surprised when they discover that the girl and her fiancee had run away to get married.; Elena leaves her baby at Diego's doorstep, distraught that her husband was imprisoned for speaking out against the unjust taxes. Zorro steps into the picture to rescue Jose Lopez and reunites him with his wife and child.; Garcia, having Zorro yet elude him again, goes to Diego and informs him that he has devised a plan to capture Zorro. Diego will make it known that he knows who the Fox actually is, and when Zorro arrives at the de la Vega hacienda to shut Diego up, Garcia and his men will move in to capture the wily Fox. But Diego contrives a plan of his own, which saves the day and sends Garcia off to figure out yet another plan.; Don Rafael and Diego muse over the fact that Valencia is losing his garden bell because the Don is behind on his taxes, and it's the tax collector himself who wants the bell for himself. It seems the bell is supposed to be a protective charm for the community and will fight any attempt to take it. Zorro concocts a clever scheme to keep the bell from being taken away.; Diego and Bernardo come across a young boy who has traveled all the way from Santa Barbara to find Zorro and join forces with him to fight for the rights of the people. He does find Zorro, who then advises him that, before he can fight, he must learn, and recommends that the boy attend Padre Onora's mission school.; Asleep at his desk, a rock crashing through the window with a note attached peaks the soldier's interest, especially since the note tells Garcia that he can capture Zorro if he comes to meet with the note writer. The mysterious person tells Garcia that Zorro has learned about the movement of political prisoners to San Fernando, and plans to free them, so Garcia should dress his Lancers as the prisoners and when Zorro appears, the tables can be turned on the Fox. But Zorro, actually the note writer, waits for Garcia and company to leave the cuartel, then frees the prisoners.; The Governor's emissary visits Los Angeles and critizes Garcia for not having captured Zorro, and vows to catch the Fox himself after questioning residents to get a good description of the outlaw. To Garcia's amusement, every person questioned gives a different description!.; Zorro decides to help out Garcia, who is in extreme disfavor with the Commandante because he has not captured Zorro. The Fox meets Garcia on the road and allows the Sergeant to "capture" his glove to show to the Commandante in order to convince the Capitan that Garcia is doing his job.