A couple of student nurses decide to join some doctors to work in a medical station in the rain-forest a few hours flying-time from the Mexican town Catamaco. As they fly from Catamaco towards the clinic (which actually consists of just a few huts and almost none equipment) one of their three planes has to go down because of engine malfunction. It crashes somewhere in the jungle causing severe injuries to the passengers. The following day describes the attempts to save the lifes of the passengers (both nurses and doctors) in spite of the poor chances they seem to have. There is almost no medicine available, the supplies they brought with them were all on the plane going down and were stolen by native drug-dealers when they arived at the site of the crash first. In the afternoon they decide to take the injured to a nearby village with a runway long enough that the Learjet of the Californian Air Rescue team could take them to a clinic in the U.S. Not only is the journey there very complicated (one of the injured could pass away any minute) but it may also be futile: Due to recent anti-drug operations no plane is allowed to fly after dark, so the Air Rescue Team is not able to get clearance for their mission. Dr. Daniel Perrin sets off to Catamaco to persuade the authorities into giving their permission for the flight while the rest is trying to get to the runway by dawn.