Heading up a group of six militants, consisting of leftist Revolutionary Cells of both German and Palestinian militants, Carlos takes over the OPEC building, holding hostage the ministers and their accompanying delegations. Although the terrorist is at the peak of his media fame, by releasing the ministers to Algiers airport in exchange for a large ransom, he fails in the mission entrusted to him by Wadie Haddad. This is the basis of a rupture between the two men with Carlos later becoming a mercenary in the service of the highest bidder. First Syria and then Iraq. He sets up his base on the other side of the Iron Curtain between Budapest and East Berlin under the protection of the Stasi...

Carlos group, based in Budapest and protected by Syria, establishes ties with different customers interested in their particular expertise, such as Ceausescu's Romania and Libya. Carlos makes a fortune trafficking weapons and appears as a major figure in European terrorism. However, the fall of the Berlin Wall soon puts an end to this frantic activity. Carlos sees his supporters and his flexibility dramatically reduced. He finds refuge in Sudan, where he becomes a hunted man, being tracked by several secret services. Eventually the authorities in his home country arrest him and extradite him to France, where he must answer for his actions...