Based upon Bruce Chatwin's 1980 novel The Viceroy of Ouidah, the film depicts the life of a fictional slave trader who travels to the West African kingdom of Dahomey.

In the late 19th century, Francisco Manoel da Silva (Klaus Kinski) is a debauched Brazilian rancher who has reluctantly gone to work at a gold mining company after his ranch is ruined by drought.

In a visit to town, da Silva encounters and subdues by force of character an escaping slave, an act that impresses wealthy sugar baron Dom Octávio Coutinho (José Lewgoy).

The ambitious bandit trains an enormous army of native women (who, after learning to use weapons, at first want to kill all men) and leads them on a raid to successfully overthrow King Bossa.

However, da Silva eventually falls out of favour with the new King, and discovers that in the meantime Brazil has outlawed slavery and seized his assets, and the British have placed a price on his head.

The exhausted bandit goes onto the beach at Elmina and desperately tries to pull a ship's boat to water, but he collapses in the surf as the tide slowly comes in and a crippled African man walks on all fours toward him along the shore.

Kinski disagreed with Herzog about which locations would be best for the film, and he took a trip with a group of friends to some remote places that fascinated him, including the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Cape of the Sailing on the Guajira Peninsula in northern Colombia.