His family emigrates to New York, falsely claiming to be of Jewish decent. It is the first of many fraudulent identities for Yuri.

In the mid-eighties, Yuri, now a man, joins the U.N. as an interpreter in the peacekeeping forces in Africa but it is only a way to prepare him for war. After seducing his female commanding officer, he ends up selling stolen U.N. guns to the very fighters he is supposed to be helping disarm.

On this trip, he also glimpses the woman of his dreams - Ava Cordova, a beauty queen entertaining the U.N. troops.

Back in the U.S., Yuri convinces his younger brother, Vitaly, to join him in an arms dealing business. As Vitaly sarcastically remarks, "A hell of a career move."

They find their niche in under-the-counter gunrunning, selling to regimes suffering under sanctions. "I sold guns to every army but the Salvation Army". Yuri's appetite for guns is matched only by his appetite for sex.

But Yuri is constantly under threat - forced to stay one step ahead of a rival arms dealer and a dogged Interpol agent, Jack Valentine.

His younger brother discovers he has no stomach for the business but he does develop an addiction for cocaine. After checking Vitaly into a rehab clinic, Yuri goes it alone.

He engineers a meeting with the haunting Ava and an elaborate seduction. She believes he is the wealthy owner of an international transport business. As Yuri rationalizes it, "Since most relationships end in lies and deceit, it's a logical way to start."

Ava and Yuri marry and have a child. Yuri is the perfect family man, ironically removing toy guns from his son's room.

However, Yuri is close to going broke trying to convince Ava how rich he is.

Fortunately, Yuri gets a huge Christmas present in 1991 with the break-up of the Soviet Union. He immediately returns to Ukraine, knowing that there are enormous stockpiles of weapons in the former Soviet state and now no enemy.

Yuri conspires with his Uncle Dmitri, a Ukrainian army general, to sell the weapons. (It is estimated that $32 billion worth of arms were stolen in ten years - one of the greatest heists of the 20th century.)

Yuri mostly sells to countries in war-torn Africa in contravention of dozens of arms embargoes that Yuri cleverly side-steps.

He is reacquainted with a Liberian warlord from his U.N. past, Andre Baptiste, and Yuri's wealth soon exceeds even his lies about his wealth. But the atrocities resulting from the influx of weapons bring greater pressure from Interpol. Agent Valentine arrests Yuri but can't make the charges stick. One of Valentine's subordinates begs to kill Yuri but Valentine would rather let Yuri walk if the price of stopping him is his own humanity.

Yuri's double and triple lives are starting to catch up with him. A rival arms dealer is killed partly by Yuri's own hand.

Yuri has never fired a gun before, let alone killed a man. He goes on a binge of booze and drugs in the worst neighborhood in Monrovia but survives - Yuri has the curse of invincibility.

To make matters worse, Yuri is also under threat from his greatest nemesis - the woman he loves. Ava confronts him about his work. Yuri confesses.

For a short time, Yuri tries to become a legitimate businessman. But he cannot fight his true nature. It seems he is actually the addict of the family rather than his younger brother. He has to keep going because it makes him feel alive. Like a chronic gambler, it's not the winning but the thrilling risk of losing.

Yuri lies to Ava about his business trip and convinces Vitaly to accompany him on a job in Africa. The deal goes bad when Vitaly tries to intervene on behalf of a camp of defenseless refugees. Vitaly is gunned down in front of Yuri.

At this moment, Yuri faces a decision. He can destroy the arms shipment and lose his own life in the process or he can finish the deal.

Yuri does what he has always done. He survives. With his brother lying dead on the ground, Yuri goes back to the negotiating table and finishes the deal.

As long as Vitaly was alive, Yuri still had a conscience of some kind, even if his younger brother carried it for him. When Vitaly dies, what's left of Yuri's soul dies with him.

Returning to the U.S., Yuri's parents ostracize him - blaming him for his brother's death. Ava abandons Yuri, taking their son with her. When Yuri is arrested by Agent Valentine, Ava even supplies evidence and agrees to testify against him.

It looks hopeless for Yuri except that no one has accounted for the world's most powerful arms dealer - the United States government. Yuri is on first name terms with every despot on the planet and the U.S. sometimes needs dealers like Yuri to ship arms to regimes they can't be seen to be supporting.

Yuri is released. His penance is to keep selling arms - but the tragic Yuri is alone, now a shell of a man.