1992: The Cold War is over but still driving conflicts in Africa. CIA agent Tucker Zulu, born in the African nation of Tango and educated at Harvard University, pursues his wife Denise and his once best friend Charles Dibango, a KGB agent, who have fled from Boston to Moscow after a DNA paternity test shocker.

Three years later, a Soviet-backed coup in Tango installs Charles as a dictator who engages in the illegal diamond trade. In this conflict, hundreds of people are brutally murdered or maimed, many by having their hands or arms hacked off.