it follows the life of billy the kid (played by emilio estevez), in the years following the lincoln county war in which billy was part of "the regulators" – a group of around six highly skilled gunmen avenging the death of john tunstall – and the years leading up to billy's documented death. the film, however, is told by brushy bill roberts, a man who in the 1940s appeared claiming to be the real billy the kid.