In a mountainous South American country, drug-dealing rebels kidnap Peter Bowman, a US engineer who works for an oil company`s subsidiary. The company calls in a negotiator, Terry Thorne, an Aussie ex-soldier based in London. When the subsidiary goes bankrupt, the oil company washes its hands of the matter and pulls Thorne. Bowman`s wife Alice begs him to stay. She and Peter`s sister cobble together some money, Thorne talks ransom terms with the cash-strapped rebels, and Peter, chained high in the mountains, is sustained by a photo of Alice. When the politics of the situation change, so must Thorne`s strategy. And what can Alice and he do about the attraction growing between them?