Police investigating an exploded boat on a San Pedro pier discover 27 bodies and $91 million worth of drug money. The only survivors are a severely burned Hungarian terrorist and Roger Kint, a crippled con-man. Reluctantly, Kint (Kevin Spacey) is pressured into explaining what happened on the boat. His story begins six weeks earlier with five criminals being dragged in by New York police desperate for suspects in a truck hijacking, and ends with the possible identification of a criminal mastermind.