Mike Locken (James Caan) and George Hansen (Robert Duvall) are best friends and private contractors for a private intelligence agency, Communications Integrity or ComTeg, which handles covert assignments for the CIA. At the beginning of the film, Locken and Hansen are helping an East European defector, Vorodny (Helmut Dantine), escape. After delivering the defector to other ComTeg operatives, Locken and Hansen throw a wild party to relax. The next day, they go to a ComTeg safehouse to relieve other agents who have been guarding Vorodny, the defector they previously helped escape.