The beauty and splendor of Rio de Janeiro and the Brazilian countryside provide the backdrop for this adventure story. A crooked, money hungry exiled criminal develops a scheme to make enough money to gain entrance back to the United States. He hires diamond hunter T. J. Mitchell who solicits the services of oil wildcatters Phil and Ernie to transfer enough explosives to an isolated area so they can divert a river and uncover a fortune in diamonds. The trek to the back-roads of Brazil involve a run-in with mercenaries as well as revolutionaries intent on providing water to their people. Mitchell learns he was double-crossed, as the diamonds were planted. But the team of Phil and Ernie go ahead with the explosives mission, as they were only in it for the money.