Michael J. "Jay" Cochran Kevin Costner is a U.S. Navy aviator who leaves the service after twelve years. He receives a matched pair of Beretta shotguns and an invitation from Tiburon "Tibey" Mendez to spend time at his hacienda in Mexico. Tibey is a powerful crime boss, constantly surrounded by bodyguards.
In Mexico, Cochran meets Tibey's beautiful young wife, Miryea Madeleine Stowe, who lives in lavish surroundings, but is unhappy because her much older husband does not want any children, fearing pregnancy would spoil her looks.
Right from his late arrival, Cochran rubs Tibey's right-hand man, Cesar Joaquín Martínez, the wrong way by behaving independently and not acting like an employee. After enjoying a friendly reunion with Tibey, Cochran presents Tibey with a Navy G-1 leather flight jacket, confirming their very close friendship.
After an awkward dinner with Tibey, Cochran, Miryea, and two of Cesar's rude associates, Tibey conducts a private meeting with the latter duo asserting his strict standards and cruel discipline, especially when it comes to family and friends, killing one of them.
Later, Miryea and Cochran get better acquainted and develop a romantic attraction toward one another.
During a party and with Tibey and his men nearby, Cochran and Miryea have sex. Cochran tells Miryea he intends to leave Mexico, worried that Tibey will become aware of the situation. Miryea begs Cochran to stay, and, having fallen in love with her, he agrees; they then arrange a secret rendezvous at his cabin in Mexico.
Miryea tells Tibey that she will be visiting her sister in Miami, but Tibey overhears a telephone conversation in which Miryea asks her sister to lie for her. Tibey drives Miryea to the airport, giving her one last kiss. Cochran is secretly waiting inside the airport, and they drive off to his cabin.
At their hideaway, they are ambushed by Tibey and his men. Cochran's beloved dog, Rocky, is shot dead. Tibey slashes Miryea across her face with a switchblade, creating a deep scar, as his henchmen viciously beat Cochran into unconsciousness. After setting fire to the cabin, they dump Cochran in the desert, leaving him to die.
Tibey takes Miryea to a brothel to be a sex slave. The madame initially rejects her due to her now-disfigured face but agrees to relegate Miryea to "common use". Miryea is then raped by one of Tibey's men who is vengeful because she could never remember his name. A young man is assigned to drug and addict her, but uses unsterilized needles and as Miryea no longer wishes to live, she persuades him to share a needle with her, therefore, infecting Miryea with AIDS.
A critically wounded Cochran is discovered by Mauro, a peasant farmer whose family slowly nurses Cochran back to health. He returns to the burnt cabin and retrieves some money he had hidden. Mauro drives Cochran to town and gives him a knife to "cut the balls off your enemy". Cochran encounters a Texan transporting a horse who offers Cochran a ride to Durango. Inside a cantina, Cochran notices one of the thugs who had thrashed him; he follows him into the men's room and cuts his throat.
After a day on the road, the Texan delivers the horse to a wealthy man who recognizes Cochran from an afternoon at Tibey's estate. The friendly Texan later dies peacefully in his car while Cochran is driving.
At a motel, Cochran encounters Mauro's brother-in-law, Amador. Amador and his quiet friend, Ignacio, are willing to help Cochran seek revenge because Amador's sister was killed after getting mixed up in business that involved Tibey. They capture another of Tibey's henchmen, who tells them where Miryea can be found. Cochran barges into the brothel, only to find that Miryea has been moved.
Cochran, Amador, and Ignacio ambush Tibey and his bodyguard during Tibey's morning horseback ride. Cochran asks Miryea's whereabouts, but first, Tibey requests that Cochran ask forgiveness for having stolen his wife. When Cochran lowers his gun and asks Tibey's forgiveness, Tibey reveals that Miryea is in a convent.
Miryea is in a convent hospice, dying of AIDS, when Cochran arrives to tell Miryea that he loves her. He then carries her outside and Miryea tells Cochran that she also loves him, before she dies in his arms, much to Cochran's complete sadness. And he mourns the death of the woman that he loves: Miryea.
