In mid-16th century South America, after completely annihilating the illustrious Incan empire, Gonzalo Pizarro leads his army of conquistadors over the Andes in search of the fabled City of Gold, El Dorado. As Pizarro's soldiers battle starvation, Indians, the forces of nature and each other, Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) is consumed with visions of total domination and leads his army on a doomed quest into oblivion.