Tough narcotics detective 'Popeye' Doyle is in hot pursuit of a suave French drug dealer who may be the key to a huge heroin-smuggling operation.
Four canisters of deadly VX nerve gas have fallen into the hands of an international arms dealer in Myanmar. A CIA recruit delivers a high-tech detection device to an agent already on the ground.
As the Cold War rages, ex-smuggler turned reluctant spy Harry Palmer finds himself at the centre of a dangerous undercover mission, on which he must use his links to find a missing British nuclear scientist.