During the tumultuous 1970s, competing warlords are killing each other to gain control of the opium grown in the Golden Triangle, the mountainous region in Southeast Asia where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Burma join. The winner in the latest opium war, Tai Los, which means 'dope boss," is now the 'King of the Golden Triangle." Tai Los is the leader of a militia he calls the Shan Liberation Army-a group fighting for independence from the Burmese government and the creation of a separate Shan state. To raise money for guns and to gain respectability, he has offered to sell the opium crop now under his control to the United States. When President Carter's administration decides to turn down Tia Los's offer, the CIA brings in Mike Shannon, a young drug enforcement agent from South Boston, to broker a new deal.
Shannon faces two major threats as he heads into the perilous assignment: knowing that he is expendable, and the Triads. An ancient Chinese gang operating out of Hong Kong, the Triads are dependent on the Golden Triangle for their supply of heroin. Once they learn that their supply is threatened, they will not hesitate to hunt Shannon down for the sole purpose of eliminating him.