The god Wotan gives the young Prince Sigmund of Valhalla and his sister Brunhilde, the leader of the Valkyries, the task of defending the Petrified Forest. This is threatened by the Vikings (led by the aggressive Hunding), who plans an invasion of the forest in search of the secret treasure of the Nibelung, the possession of which gives one unlimited power. After crossing the border and invading Valhalla, Hunding finds an ally in the daughter of one of Sigmund's loyal followers, Erika, who is embittered by unrequited love. She helps the Vikings raid the camp of the Valhalla residents and kill many warriors. Sigmund swears vengeance and pursues them with the remaining men. However, thanks to other traitors in Sigmund's ranks, Hunding succeeds in capturing him and his fiancée Siglinde, Erika's sister. At the end, Sigmund escapes and, with the help of the Valkiries, succeeds in stopping the invaders and defeating Hunding in a duel.

A group of con artists stake their claim on a bogus uranium mine.

When Travis, the mouthy son of a criminal, disappears in the Amazon in search of a treasured artifact, his father sends in Beck, who becomes Travis's rival for the affections of Mariana, a mysterious Brazilian woman. With his steely disposition, Beck is a man of few words -- but it takes him all the discipline he can muster to work with Travis to nab a tyrant who's after the same treasure.

Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, both down on their luck in Tampico, Mexico in 1925, meet up with a grizzled prospector named Howard and decide to join with him in search of gold in the wilds of central Mexico. Through enormous difficulties, they eventually succeed in finding gold, but bandits, the elements, and most especially greed threaten to turn their success into disaster.

Margo is an ex-stripper who meets her long, lost father in Mexico. She looks after him in the waning days of his life, with the help of a traveling projectionist. The father passes away, telling of the loot from a botched bank robbery that he buried years earlier. The two get jobs in town as their relationship grows and they search for the treasure on the weekends. But while the treasure seems to bring them together, it also seems to be tearing them apart.