Young Venezuelan Marxist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (Edgar Ramírez) is recruited by the leader of a Palestinian terrorist organization (Christoph Bach) to perform several jobs in Europe in the early 1970s, culminating in the audacious kidnapping of several OPEC oil ministers. From that small-scale beginning, he becomes an infamous international terrorist for hire, known in the media as Carlos the Jackal, who performs violent acts across the globe for a wide variety of nations and organizations.