Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, Carlos is a central figure in the history of international terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s, from pro-Palestinian activism to the Japanese Red Army. At once a figure of the extreme left and an opportunistic mercenary in the pay of powerful Middle Eastern secret services, he formed his own organization based on the other side of the Iron Curtain which was active during the final years of the Cold War.

This film is the story of a revolutionary internationalist, both manipulator and manipulated, as he is carried along by the currents of contemporary history and his own folly. We will follow him to the end of his road, relegated to Sudan where the Islamic dictatorship, after having protected him for a while, handed him over to French police.