In the Vietnam War, Captain Norman Hopper and his platoon attack a Vietnamese base and rescue two American soldiers in a cage. Charlie Bukowski and Tom Thompson are eating human flesh, and when Norman gives his hand to take them out of the cage, Bukowski bites him.
In the present days (1980), Norman has sequels from the bite such as nightmares, and his wife, the television anchor Jane Hopper, is worried about his health and mental conditions. Out of the blue, he receives a phone call from Bukowski that is interned in a mental institution with Tom, inviting him to drink with him in a bar since he is better and has obtained his first release from the hospital since the war. Norman refuses and stays home, but his teenage next door neighbor Mary hits on him and he feels desire to bite her belly.
Meanwhile, Bukowski bites a woman in the movie theater and a police officer, in the beginning of a cannibalism spree in Atlanta.