As a young man, John Alvarez is a bad boy, so it's no surprise when a judge finally gives him the choice between going to prison and joining the Marine Corps. Alvarez reluctantly decides on the latter, not realizing that he will discover himself and find a home in the Corps.
Shipped off to Vietnam, Alvarez leads his own band of bad boys-Iron Raven-into the jungle. They become the terror of their enemies and always the first choice for the most dangerous missions. On one such mission, the brain child of a couple of CIA ops, Alvarez and his squad are cut off from escape by their CIA handlers and are left to fight their way out alone or die. Only Alvarez survives-but his revenge upon the men who abandoned him and his brothers lands him in prison for life.
After twenty years of incarceration, Alvarez is offered his freedom, but only if he agrees to undertake another suicide mission. If he's going to be a free man, Alvarez must become the bodyguard of a Mr. Standish and lead him on a journey into the mysterious Amazonian kingdom ruled by the devil himself. It is only in the heart of the jungle that Alvarez discovers that he has accepted a mission with only two possible outcomes-redemption or death.