A hardened man trades one prison for another in this paramilitary thriller. Frank is a survivor. After being shot down in Vietnam, he spends two years in the Hanoi Hilton. When he is liberated, he learns that the woman to whom he was engaged has married another. Depressed and despondent, he takes a cruise to clear his mind. There he meets Antoinette, a recruiter for an organization called the Company. Interested in his aviation background, she signs him on and sends him to Panama where the Company is located for basic training. Now submerged in a mercenary lifestyle, Frank flies many missions for the Company over the next 30 years. The action moves back and forth from Frank's adventures with the Company to the struggles of his personal life, as Antoinette gives him a son and a librarian becomes his mistress. But when he decides to retire from his dirty work, he learns that the Company is not too keen on letting its mercenaries go.