The grizzly sight of a dead body hanging head first, upside down and backwards over the side of a small skiff alongside the San Joaquin, inadvertently exposes a rash of smuggling, prostitution, kidnapping, torture, rape and murder running rampant throughout the otherwise pristine waters of the California Delta. In their attempt to find out what brought about the poor man's demise, the two lovers that made the initial discovery become the instant target of a bloodthirsty gang of cutthroates and hit men in a series of action-packed, death defying battles during which the antagonists ram, sink and destroy each other's boats and roar up and down the startled river right into the waiting arms of a shocking finale.