Arctic prospector Jack McCann (Gene Hackman), after 15 years of solitary searching, becomes one of the world's wealthiest men when he literally falls into a mountain of gold in 1925. Twenty years later in 1945, he lives in luxury on a Caribbean island that he owns. But his wealth brings him no peace of mind as he copes with Helen (Jane Lapotaire), his bored, alcoholic wife; Tracy (Theresa Russell), his headstrong daughter who has married Claude Van Horn (Rutger Hauer) a dissolute, philandering social-climber; his paranoid assistant Charles Perkins (Ed Lauter); and Miami mobsters led by Aurelio D'Amato (Mickey Rourke) sent by Mayakofsky (Joe Pesci), who want his island to build a casino. His life is entangled with the obsessions of those around him with greed, power, and debauchery against a background of occult symbolism.