Ex-commodities broker Raymond Powers is now working as an approval officer with the Foreign Aid division of the State Department. As a result of bad investments, Ray owes half a million dollars to Brad Foxworth and his two thuggish, but bumbling, cohorts. Ray manipulates his way into a foreign aid deal for a small Caribbean island in order to divert funds to his personal payback. The plan goes awry when the appropriations committee decides to send grain instead of cash to the island. While trying to save his neck, he discovers the corruption that plagues the distribution end of US Foreign Aid. A love affair with the island and with a Peace Corps worker there helps set Ray on the track of justice.