Police investigating an exploded boat on a San Pedro pier discover 27 bodies and 91 million dollars worth of drug money. The only survivors are a severely burned Hungarian terrorist and Roger Kint, a crippled con-man. Reluctantly, Kint is pressured into explaining what happened on the boat. His story begins six weeks earlier with five criminals being dragged in by New York police desperate for suspects in a truck hijacking, and ends with the possible identification of a criminal mastermind.