When his family is murdered by members of a drug gang, an undercover CIA agent tracks them down, but they escape and flee to their hideout, a fortress in South America. Knowing he can't count on the local authorities for aid, he calls on one of his fellow CIA agents for help in cracking the fortress, and getting to the gangsters and eliminating them and their leader.

Frank Galvin is a down-on-his-luck lawyer and reduced to drinking and ambulance chasing, when a former associate reminds him of his obligations in a medical malpractice suit by serving it to Galvin on a silver platter—all parties are willing to settle out of court. Blundering his way through the preliminaries, Galvin suddenly realizes that the case should actually go to court—to punish the guilty, to get a decent settlement for his clients... and to restore his standing as a lawyer.