An ex-special forces operative takes a job to provide security for a journalist as she interviews a dictator, but a military coup breaks out in the middle of the interview, they are forced to escape into the jungle where they must survive.

As informal punishment for an unwitting affair with admiral Gregory Maitland's adulterous wife, Sam Axe, a US Navy Commander, was sent to Colombia to observe the suspected rebel movement Espada Ardiente ('Burning Sword'). Now he's under investigation for allegedly consorting with those alleged terrorists. He explains how he discovered that his Colombian army liaison Comandante Veracruz was the real drug dealers cahoot, who pailed on framing Axe and presumably innocent farmers for the bombing of an American-run Andes clinic. Sam escaped and tried to help the civilians and forces CIA observers to demand urgent help. He even found a trump card to avoid conviction for his illegal methods and a favorable discharge.