David Packouz is a massage therapist living in
Miami,
Florida with his girlfriend Iz in 2005. He spends his life savings on high-quality bedsheets to resell to retirement homes, but the venture fails. David runs into his old friend
Efraim Diveroli, who has formed his own company, AEY Inc., selling arms to the US government for the ongoing
war in Iraq. Iz informs David she is pregnant, and Efraim offers him a job at AEY; although David and Iz vehemently oppose war, David joins AEY and lies to Iz. Efraim explains that military equipment orders are posted on a public website, and their job is to bid for small orders ignored by larger contractors but still worth millions. Local businessman Ralph Slutzky provides them funding, under the false belief that AEY only sells arms to protect
Israel. David and Efraim land a contract to provide several thousand
Beretta pistols to the Iraqi Police in
Baghdad, but an Italian embargo blocks the shipment, which is waylaid in
Jordan. Failing to deliver the cargo as promised would mean that AEY would be blacklisted from future contracts. The pair fly to Jordan, bribe locals to release the shipment, and receive transport into Iraq. They're driven through the night, bribing a border patrol and evading armed insurgents, arriving at a military base where Captain Santos pays them handsomely for surviving the
Triangle of Death. AEY secures larger and more lucrative deals, expanding their operation, and David's daughter Ella is born, while Efraim grows more unstable and untrustworthy. The company has a chance at "The Afghan deal", their biggest yet. The US government has posted an order for 100 million rounds of
AK-47 ammunition which would net a $100 million profit. However, there is a global shortage of
AK-47 ammunition. The pair encounters legendary arms dealer Henry Girard, who has access to massive unused weapon depots in
Albania.
NATO treaties require the Albanians to dispose of these arsenals, including over 100 million rounds of AK-47 ammunition. Unable to deal directly with the US, Girard agrees to deal with Efraim, despite David's discomfort at working with a man on a terrorist watch list. In a bidding interview, Efraim learns they underbid their competitors by $50 million. Iz, who has discovered David's true job, leaves him to stay at her mother's. David discovers the ammunition is largely Chinese-made and thus illegal due to a US
embargo so Efraim has the ammunition repackaged to mask its origin. Learning Henry has charged them a 400% markup, Efraim announces his plan to cut Henry out of the deal. David protests, criticizing him for having fun while David does all the work, enraging Efraim to destroy the only copy of their partnership contract. Henry retaliates by having David kidnapped, beaten, and threatened at gunpoint. When Efraim doesn't pay Enver, the Albanian handling the repackaging, he threatens to report them to US authorities for the relabeling. David promises he'll get Efraim to pay him, and learns that his Albanian driver, Bashkim, is missing and might even have been killed. David returns to Miami, quits AEY, and demands the money he is owed, but Efraim refuses. David returns to working as a massage therapist and convinces Iz to move back in with him, telling her the truth about AEY. Weeks later, Efraim and Ralph offer David a paltry severance package, so David threatens Efraim with evidence of his falsified company documents. David and Efraim are arrested by the
FBI after the disgruntled Enver reported them. The FBI had previously arrested Ralph, who wore a wire in an incriminating meeting with David and Efraim. Efraim is sentenced to four years in prison for conspiracy and fraud on the Afghan deal, while David pleads guilty and gets seven months of house arrest for his cooperation. Months later, Henry apologizes to David for abducting him in Albania and shares his appreciation for not being turned in to the FBI. When David asks what happened to Bashkim, the Albanian driver, Henry offers David a briefcase of money in exchange for "no more questions." ==Cast==