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?