Plot
Joan Wilder is a successful but lonely romance novelist living in a New York apartment with her cat, Romeo. As Joan leaves to meet her editor and friend Gloria Horne, her neighbor hands her an envelope containing a map, sent by her recently murdered brother-in-law, Eduardo. While she is gone, a man breaks into her apartment and kills the building's superintendent when caught in the act. Returning to her apartment, Joan finds it ransacked and receives a phone call from her sister Elaine, Eduardo's widow. Elaine has been kidnapped by antiquities smugglers, cousins Ira and Ralph, and instructs Joan to bring the map to the Colombian coastal city of Cartagena; it is Elaine's ransom.
Flying to Colombia, Joan is diverted from the bus to Cartagena by Colonel Zolo, the man who killed Eduardo and ransacked her apartment. Instead of heading to Cartagena, this bus goes deep into the country's interior. Ralph realizes this and begins following Joan. When Joan distracts the bus driver by asking where they are going, the bus crashes into a Land Rover, wrecking both vehicles. As the rest of the passengers walk away, Joan is held at gunpoint by Zolo but is saved by the Land Rover's owner, an American exotic bird smuggler named Jack T. Colton following a shootout between him and Zolo.
Joan promises to pay Jack $375 in traveler's cheques for getting her out of the jungle and to a telephone. The two of them travel the jungle while eluding Zolo and his military police. Reaching a small village, they encounter a drug lord named Juan who is a big fan of Joan's novels and happily helps them escape from Zolo’s soldiers.
After a night of dancing and passion in a nearby town, Jack suggests to Joan that they find the treasure themselves before handing over the map. Zolo's men enter the town, so Jack and Joan steal a car to escape; but it is Ralph's car, and he is sleeping in the back. They follow the clues and retrieve the treasure, an enormous emerald called El Corazón ("The Heart"). Ralph takes the emerald from them at gunpoint, but Zolo's forces appear, distracting Ralph long enough for Jack to steal the jewel back. After being chased into a river and over a waterfall, Jack and Joan are separated on opposite sides of the raging river. Joan has the map, but Jack has the emerald. Jack directs Joan to Cartagena, promising that he will meet her there.
In Cartagena, Joan meets with Ira, who takes the map and lets Elaine go. But Zolo and his men arrive, with a captured Jack and a severely beaten Ralph. As Zolo attempts to torture Joan, Jack tries to kick the emerald into a crocodile pool behind Zolo. Zolo catches the emerald, but then a crocodile jumps up and bites his hand off, swallowing the emerald with it. A brief gunfight ensues between Zolo's soldiers and Ira’s men just as Ira and Ralph run for cover. Joan and Elaine dash for safety, just as the maimed Zolo gives chase, while Jack tries to stop the crocodile from escaping, but begrudgingly releases it to try to save Joan.
A crazed Zolo charges at Joan; she dodges his wild knife slashes, and he falls through a trap door into a crocodile pit to his death. As the authorities arrive, Ira and his men escape, but Ralph is left behind. After a kiss, Jack dives into the water after the crocodile with the emerald, leaving Joan behind with her sister.
Some time later, Joan is back in New York City and has written a new novel based on her adventure. Gloria is moved to tears by the story and tells Joan she has another best-seller on her hands. Returning home, she finds Jack waiting for her in a sailboat named the Angelina, after the heroine of Joan's novels, and wearing boots made from the crocodile's skin. He jokes that the crocodile got "a fatal case of indigestion" from the emerald, which he sold, using the money to buy the boat of his dreams. They go off together, planning to sail around the world.
