In September, 1981, a cargo ship loaded with marijuana departs a Colombian port carrying Carlos Zipante, a guerrilla commander on a covert assignment to purchase arms for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a deal financed by narco-traffickers. He disembarks at a Cuban fishing village where he is met by two army officers. During the ride over familiar mountain roads, memories of his mother's murder by a Colombian military death squad seep into his mind. He recalls his formative years at a Bogotá university as a law student, joining the Communist Party and later the FARC. After leaving Cuba, he's picked up by an American shrimp trawler that takes him to Florida. He connects a Colombian drug kingpin and gets a new identity to fly to Washington to meet with a Belgian weapons dealer. Disguised as a Spanish businessman, he meets the Belgian at a Middle Eastern embassy and is also introduced to Anne Henderson, a young American lawyer. Both are immediately attracted to one another and fall in love. Carlos sets up his deals to buy weapons, one with the Belgian and the other with his Cuban contact. Carlos and Anne spend a weekend together and upon their return to Washington, a bullet is fired at their car and Carlos thinks the bullet is meant for him; afraid of endangering Anne's life, he confesses to her that he is a guerilla buying arms. After he secures a weapons deal with the Cuban dealer, he quickly leaves the country. Ann asks her politically well-connected father for help. Within two weeks, curriculum vitae of Carlos, gathered from US intelligence agencies, is given to Anne. Not long after, Carlos calls Anne from Venezuela, tells her that he is headed for Colombia, and then sends her several emotionally charged love letters.Meanwhile, in the tropical town of San Martin, Colombia, a wealthy cattle rancher, Alberto Alvarez, is kidnapped by FARC guerrillas and taken into the jungle of Colombia's vast eastern plains. In the months that follow, both Carlos and Anne go on with their separate, although somewhat connected, lives. Carlos treks through the jungle with his insurgents setting up bivouacs and recruiting future guerrillas. Anne becomes desperate when she finds out that she is pregnant with Carlos's child and creates an imaginary husband to save her professional reputation. Eventually Carlos finds out about his son's birth when he calls Anne from a safe house. Carlos is overwhelmed with the news and has self-doubt about remaining an insurgent.For the next few months, while Carlos and his band of guerrillas are on the run, he was forced to take on a prisoner held for ransom. While fighting the army, Carlos and his prisoner, Alvarez, get to respect each other, and develop an unusual kinship. Carlos releases the man a few days before his ransom is paid.When Carlos's guerrilla front advances toward Venezuela's border, they are ambushed by the Colombian army and while retreating back into the jungle, they stumble across a cocaine-processing plant; FARC headquarters orders Carlos to watch over the lab until the owners can pay a "protection fee." However, the Colombian army catches up with Carlos at the lab where several are killed and wounded, including Carlos. Tomas takes the lead. The rebels return to the battle scene to look for survivors and weapons. Unfortunately, the army had already cleaned up and removed the dead and wounded. FARC assumes that Carlos was killed, and promotes Tomas as commander. Two months later, Tomas visits former prisoner Alvarez, to ask him to send several of Carlos's letters to the American woman. Alvarez reluctantly agrees and tells them not to contact him anymore.Alvarez keeps his promise. Another month passes before Anne receives the letters and also a long-awaited phone call from Maracaibo, Venezuela. Carlos has survived.