Henri "Papillon" Charrière idømmes livstid for et mord, han ikke har begået, og sendes til straffekolonien i Fransk Guyana. Han har bare et mål: at flygte. Han slår sig sammen med Dega, en mand, som sidder inde for falskmøntneri. Efter utallige fejlslagne flugtforsøg og flere år i isolation flyttes Papillon til den berygtede straffekoloni på Djævleøen. Et sted, som det aldrig er lykkedes nogen at flygte fra.
Vincent, a 20-year old geology student from Paris, goes to French Guyana to do an internship at a gold mining company. Taken under the wing of local gold lord Antoine Serra, Vincent quickly falls into the much more lucrative and dangerous world of gold trafficking. From Serra, who acts like a father to him, Vincent learns everything there is to know about the business. Newcomers aren't welcome - Louis, Serra's right hand, makes it clear that he does not trust him. Vincent and Serra start building a camp to explore a gold mine, but tensions rise to a full-fledged war between them and their Brazilian competitors. And things get even more complicated when Vincent discovers that the mythical Sarah Bernhard mine is not a legend. The Guyanese jungle is a world where businessmen, gangsters, geologists and soldiers collide, and men kill and are killed for a few grams of the precious metal.
