Press photographer first meets Claire, reporter for Public Radio, and Alex,m correspondent for Time Magazine and Claire lover in Chad. Alex drams of of becoming a TV anchorman, earning $10.000 per week and a house on Long Island. When Alex returns to the States, Claire gets on her way to the next hot spot: Nicaragua. Russell decides to join her - not because he is interested in Nicaragua but because he is interested in Claire.
Once in the war-torn, Central American country, it does not take Russell long to see the vast difference between the corrupt, U.S.-backed dictatorship and the struggling guerrilla forces who have been fighting for a decade already. As his eyes are opened, he and Claire decide to go along with the rebels and film their fighting behind the lines. During one battle, the much-venerated rebel leader is shot dead, and Russell reluctantly agrees to fake a photo of the man as though he were still living, so as not to demoralize the army that looks up to him for leadership. The photo appears in the news around the world and causes such a furor that Alex shows up to demand an interview with the leader for national American television. It is on the way to this supposed interview that Alex leaves the car for a moment and is senselessly shot and killed by a government soldier, the whole episode filmed for the world by Russell's camera. This outrage soon makes global news and helps to hasten the overthrow of the corrupt dictatorship. Meanwhile, Russell has new issues to consider once his camera has become an "active" and not a "passive" observer of political unrest.