Joan Wilder is a successful but lonely romance novelist in New York City whose editor believes she is waiting to meet a romantic hero like the ones she writes about. Joan gets a call from her sister Elaine, who has been kidnapped by antiquities smugglers, cousins Ira and Ralph. As Joan leaves her apartment to meet her editor, Gloria, she is handed a letter containing a map, sent to her by her late brother-in-law, Eduardo, who had been murdered a few days prior. While she is gone, a man tries to break into her apartment and is discovered by her apartment supervisor, who he kills. Returning to her apartment, Joan finds it ransacked. Joan then receives a frantic phone call from Elaine (held at knife-point by Ira), who instructs Joan to go to Colombia with the map she received; it is Elaine's ransom.