In 1999, Sierra Leone is ravaged by civil war. The Revolutionary United Front terrorizes the countryside and enslaves many locals to harvest diamonds, which fund their increasingly successful war effort. A Mende fisherman from Shenge, Solomon Vandy, discovers an enormous pink diamond while mining a river and is soon captured and imprisoned alongside a white Rhodesian gunrunner named Danny Archer. As they escape and embark on a perilous journey to reunite with Vandy's son Dia, who has been conscripted as a child soldier, they must navigate the treacherous landscape of warlords, mercenaries, and corrupt executives who seek to exploit the conflict for their own gain.