In San Francisco, California, photojournalist-writer Richard Boyle has a short temper, unpaid debts, and struggles with addiction, making him unstable and perpetually unemployed. When Boyle is evicted, arrested, and deserted by his wife and newborn child, he is bailed out of jail by his close friend, disc jockey “Dr. Rock,” who has domestic troubles of his own and agrees to an impromptu road trip to El Salvador. Boyle worked in the country years earlier and glorifies El Salvador as a tropical beach resort, brimming with affordable drugs and prostitutes, but fails to mention the nation is in the throes of a violent civil war, in which the U.S.-backed military government is massacring its impoverished, Socialist-leaning citizens. Unknown to Dr. Rock, Boyle is on a mission to document the conflict. He hopes the photographs will restore his financial wellbeing, and his professional credibility. Arriving in El Salvador, Boyle witnesses the execution of a student who does not have cédula identity documents and realizes the situation is more dangerous than expected. When he and Dr. Rock are detained, Boyle declares he is a friend of Colonel Julio Figueroa, a right-wing commander he once interviewed. Their lives are spared, even though Boyle is reviled by the military’s “death squad” leader, Major Max. At a rural village, Boyle reunites with his former lover, Maria, who explains that the father of her son and infant daughter was “disappeared” by the government. Civilians are regularly taken away without cause, massacred, and buried in unmarked graves, leaving their families uncertain of their whereabouts. Maria is wary of Boyle’s debaucherous lifestyle, but he falsely promises to stay sober and they make love. Sometime later, Boyle drives to the capital city of San Salvador and meets a successful colleague named John Cassady. Although he declines Boyle’s request for work, John shows his friend the site of a recent “death squad” massacre, and they take photographs of the corpses. Back in town, Boyle reunites with companions from his previous visit, including a young nun named Cathy Moore. She later introduces him to American Ambassador Thomas Kelly, but Boyle insults the official by declaring that the war is immoral. Referring to the recent murders of citizens without cédula identity cards, and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-trained “death squads,” Boyle argues that the U.S. is undermining its democratic ideals by supporting El Salvador’s totalitarian government. In the coming days, Ronald Reagan is elected U.S. president after campaigning on a platform of zero tolerance for so-called Communists in Central America, and he convinces his supporters that El Salvador’s rebel farmers are Russian-backed terrorists who plan to take over the U.S. With increasing support from America, Major Max orders his henchmen to murder El Salvador’s religious leaders who have been speaking out against the war. Meanwhile, Boyle’s traveling companion, Dr. Rock, is desperate to leave the county, but he has no money, and Boyle remains unable to pay him back for the bail bond. Dr. Rock befriends Maria’s rabble-rousing brother, Carlos, and the two are detained for marijuana possession. With the help of Cathy Moore, Boyle bribes his friend out of prison, but Carlos remains captive and Maria panics, fearing that she and her children are also at risk. Boyle appeals to Ambassador Kelly, explaining that the siblings do not have cédulas and will be murdered. However, Boyle’s previous condemnation of the U.S. government has made him unpopular, and the favor is declined. With all hope lost for Carlos, Boyle proposes to Maria, hoping she will be protected under their marriage license, but she refuses to marry an atheist alcoholic. Boyle proves his faith by going to Archbishop Romero for confession and vows to become more virtuous. As Romero gives communion at the altar, he is assassinated by one of Major Max’s henchmen and a gun battle ensues. Sometime later, Major Max claims the murder was orchestrated by rebels and Boyle yells in protest, exacerbating Max’s antagonism. When Maria gets word of Carlos’s death, she believes the violence was incited by her lover’s outspoken politics and breaks off the affair. Boyle consoles himself at a bar and sees Cathy Moore, who encourages him to restore his relationship. Unaware that Major Max’s assistant is listening, she reports that she will be braving the dangerous country roads to retrieve her fellow nuns from the airport. The following evening, Cathy’s bus is stopped by National Guard officers who rape and murder the nuns. When government officials try to cover up the incident, Ambassador Kelly is outraged and cuts U.S. aid to El Salvador. Mourning the loss of his friends, Boyle joins a press team on their mission to the “guerrilla” rebels’ secret camp, where he learns about an upcoming coup. As he photographs the fighters, he realizes they do not have Russian weapons, disproving Reagan’s anti-Communist justification for the war. Returning to San Salvador, Boyle takes his film negative to U.S. officials and alerts them to the deceit, hoping it will end the conflict. He offers to hand over the photographs in return for Maria’s security, but the men deny his request, and advise him to leave the country before he is killed by Major Max. Meanwhile, Dr. Rock, who has finally adapted to life in El Salvador, acquires a forged cédula for Maria and her children. Boyle reconciles with his lover, but their escape is postponed when John Cassady invites his friend to photograph the rebels’ conquest of Santa Ana. There, they dodge gunfire and Boyle is devastated when his camera breaks. Back in San Salvador, Ambassador Kelly’s advisors convince him to lift the embargo. As an American warplane flies overhead and deploys its arsenal, John runs in its path to capture the U.S.’s incursion in the battle, and is mortally wounded. With his dying breath, John asks Boyle to deliver his film to the press, so the world will know the truth about El Salvador. When Boyle recovers from his own injuries, he drives out of the country with Dr. Rock, Maria, and the children, praying they will escape undetected. However, Boyle is detained at a border checkpoint, where he is tortured and threatened with death. As officials expose John’s film negative, Dr. Rock makes a frantic telephone call to Ambassador Kelly, and Boyle’s life is saved at the last minute. The officials treat Boyle to a conciliatory feast, and he reveals that he hid one last roll of John’s film in his boot heel. Boyle, Maria, and the children board a bus to San Francisco, believing they are finally safe, but the vehicle is stopped by immigration officers. Despite Boyle’s protests, the men detain Maria’s family and he is escorted to a police car, heading in the opposite direction.