1960: Katanga breaks away from the Republic of Congo-Léopoldville to become its own republic, backed by the UMHK, a Belgian mining company. When the UN sends in its peacekeeping forces, the UMHK responds by hiring its own mercenaries. Amidst this chaos, $30 million in diamonds goes missing, only to turn up with a man named Charlie at a refugee camp nicknamed "Camp Cannibal." Soon enough, everyone's after the diamonds: hard-bitten French mercenaries, hateful former Nazis, adulterous mining executives, greedy Katangan officials... and Charlie's sister. It's everyone for themselves in a mad scramble of double-crosses, a scathing cross-section of human venality.