Peter Bowman (DAVID MORSE) is an American engineer working in a Latin American country building a dam with the help of Quad Carbon, an oil company wanting to run a pipeline through the country of Tecala. While Peter's busy at work, his wife Alice (MEG RYAN) isn't a happy camper. Not only does she have nothing to do in this, yet one more stop in yet another third world country, but also her marriage to Peter is strained, particularly after a recent miscarriage she had while in Africa.
Things get worse when an anti-government and drug harvesting terrorist group, the ELT, kidnaps Peter, believing him to be an important oil executive worthy of a hefty, multi-million dollar ransom. Unfortunately, he isn't, and to top off matters, it turns out that his company, that's going out of business, didn't insure him or his fellow workers against such developments.
With Peter's older sister, Janis Goodman (PAMELA REED) arriving in Tecala, Alice turns to professional kidnapping negotiator Terry Thorne (RUSSELL CROWE), who's just successfully retrieved another hostage from Chechnya. Unfortunately, his hands are tied by his superiors here who don't want him on a case that has no financial backing.
Despite that, Terry decides to take the case anyway, and with help of a fellow negotiator, Dino (DAVID CARUSO), he sets out to find out everything he can about Peter and prepare for his kidnappers' inevitable demands and ransom requests. While doing so, the kidnappers, including Juaco (PIETRO SIBILLE), the loose cannon of the bunch, move Peter further into the jungles where he eventually meets Eric Kessler (GOTTFRIED JOHN), a hostage who acts like a crazy man in order to survive what has become a nineteen month ordeal for him.
As the weeks wear on and Dino begins to suspect some possible romantic attraction between Terry and Alice, all of those involved do what they can to figure out where Peter's being held and then retrieve him as safely as possible.