When Hugh and Phyllis Hannigan hear the horrific news that their daughter and son-in-law have been brutally murdered while on their honeymoon, they reach out to someone they know they can trust: one of their own. Mick Hannigan, their nephew and the director of security for a mining company as well as a veteran and an occasional poor man's Bob Hope agrees to travels to the tiny South American country of Talcayan to investigate the murders.

There, he meets the typical mixture of the good and bad in a seemingly lawless place, where the usual restraints on the worst human impulses have broken down. Mick contributes his considerable combat skills to the struggle of some law-abiding citizens who are fighting the attempt by criminals to take control of the country. But even in victory, there is a price to pay; their small victories merely uncover new layers of intrigue and cruelty. Mick discovers that there is also a battle going on within himself. He struggles to escape the one entanglement he didn't expect to encounter in this foreign land: someone who actually likes him. That's a quality he has always admired in an attractive female.

Besides, where else is he likely to find a woman who will come to the rescue of her friends with a Leopard I tank and a ragtag army?