Set against the tumultuous backdrop of the present day fall of communism in Bulgaria, the film chronicles the story of Nick Milev, a handsome, brooding Bulgarian man in his mid-thirties, whose pained faced reveals the tortured life he has led. At 18, he was convicted of attacking his father's murderer and imprisoned. While in jail, Nick meets Johnny, a cocky American photo journalist who is on a mission to find Jonathan Griffith, the same man who boldly murdered Nick's father. A distinguished, handsome man in his early fifties, Griffith is an American involved with nuclear terrorists and the drug and weapons trade--a man considered to be the "mother of all Slavic mobsters." Once freed from prison, Nick and Johnny reunite and set out to destroy Griffith and his empire. Throughout their mission, Nick encounters romance, deceit and tragedy. Finally, when justice prevails, Nick realizes that his obsession with revenge destroyed the true love he has spent his life in search of.