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While working on a lipstick ad campaign in a South American village, photographer Ben Morris and fashion model Alison Duquesne are stranded when their helicopter is stolen by adventurer Sammy Ryderbeit.  After convincing the local authorities that they are not secret agents or smugglers, Ben and Alison run into Sammy, who has crashed the helicopter.  Upon hearing Sammy's story about a lost diamond mine, the couple are skeptical until they discover the dead body of Captain Stopes, the only man aware of the mine's location.

Equipped with Stopes's map to the mine, Ben, Alison, and Sammy set off on a diamond safari, joined by Crowley, a scheming Australian who claims to be Stopes's ex-partner.  Intending to take the diamonds for himself, he steals the trio's supplies and leaves them stranded in the middle of the desert without mules.  Sammy catches up with Crowley and kills him in a shoot-out.

When the trio finally reaches the mine, they discover that a rival gang headed by Raul Ortega has beaten them to the treasure.  In the ensuing skirmish, Ortega is taken prisoner, his henchmen killed, and the diamonds retrieved by Sammy, who then steals another helicopter and takes off with the loot.  Colonel Celaya, a village police official, is unperturbed by Sammy's disappearance, since Ortega, the head of a revolutionary movement, has been captured.  Ben, revealed to be a CIA agent, is confident that he can overtake Sammy and the diamonds.