- Killer bats plague an Indian reservation in New Mexico.
- A colony of vampire bats terrorize a small Indian community in New Mexico. Standard "Nature goes berserk" plot takes a twist toward the end when supernatural forces are discovered working through the bats.—B.M.
- On the Maski Indian reservation in the desert Southwest, tribal deputy Youngman Duran (Nick Mancuso) is summoned to a ranch where a herd of horses has mysteriously died. Examining a mare, Duran is dumbfounded by the plethora of deep bite marks and the strong smell of ammonia around the dead animal. Duran is upset to see Walker Chee (Stephen Macht), a chief from the neighboring Pahana tribe, arrive by helicopter with a veterinarian, since the Pahana do not have jurisdiction in the area. Considering his own tribe's impoverishment, Duran resents the Pahana's affluence, as well as Chee's business schemes. Duran leaves the investigation with Chee, whose veterinarian is also baffled by the horse massacre.
Duran then visits Abner Tasupi (George Clutesi), a Maski priest, who has been banished from the community, for witchcraft. Although Duran was raised by Abner and admires him, he reminds the elderly man that Maski leaders fear his magic. Under the influence of the hallucinogenic datura root, Abner declares that he has cast a spell to end the world, whose greed threatens the Maski. Pointing to a circular painting on the floor, Abner says that he has instigated this apocalypse by destroying the outer ring of the picture, thus "opening the circle." Furthermore, Abner predicts that he will die that evening and announces Duran will be a powerful warrior. Skeptical, Duran leaves.
At sunset, Duran relaxes in a hot spring with his girl friend, Anne Dillon (Kathryn Dillon), an aspiring doctor who runs a clinic on the reservation. He is jealous to learn that Anne has been accepted to medical school and will be moving to Houston, Texas, while he struggles on the reservation.
The next morning, Duran finds Abner lying dead next to the floor painting with bite marks on his face and realizes that the old man's rant was not a hallucination. After gathering supplies for the burial, Duran returns to the dwelling and is angry to find a British scientist named Philip Payne (David Warner) taking tissue samples from Abner's corpse. Despite Payne's insistence that he is a specialist who can determine the cause of death, Duran points a gun at the man and orders him to leave.
As Duran buries Abner, Anne embarks on a tour of the reservation for several days with four missionaries whom she hopes will contribute funds for new medical clinic. Meanwhile, at the Pahana Tribal Council, Payne meets with Chee to ask for support in tracking vampire bats that have likely migrated to the area from Mexico. However, Chee says he does not have time to facilitate Payne's research. Frustrated, Payne leaves and tells Chee to telephone him if there are sightings of carcasses smelling of ammonia.
In the meantime, Chee pursues a lucrative business deal and appeals to Duran regarding a permit to mine shale oil in Maski Canyon. Insulted by the idea, Duran reminds Chee that the area is the holiest site within the Maski religion. Elsewhere, Payne confirms that vampire bats massacred a flock of sheep and alerts Chee. After examining a blood specimen from the carcasses, the scientist demonstrates to the tribal chief and a medical doctor that the bats carry bubonic plague. He also explains that the ammonia smell results from the bats discharging excess blood in order to become airborne again. Payne warns that the colony will eventually be drawn to human populations and spread the plague. Arguing that a quarantine on the reservation will attract inexperienced health officials and lead to panic, Payne convinces Chee that he can track and exterminate the bat colony within three days. In the meantime, Payne provides the doctor with a vaccine that offers some resistance to the plague.
Meanwhile, at their campsite in the desert, Anne and the missionaries are attacked during the night by the vampire bats. Anne is the only survivor, but she is stranded after their camper van crashes in the desert during the escape. Elsewhere, at a rain dance ceremony, Duran discovers seven dead Maski priests, who contracted the plague after stealing Abner's corpse to curtail his afterlife powers. Although Duran wants to notify health authorities, Chee persuades the impatient deputy to give Payne, whom he has verified as a rare expert in the field, another 36 hours to locate the colony before alarming the Center for Disease Control. In meantime, the media is informed that the priests died of food contamination.
Payne continues to chart the bats' movement and gets closer to the nesting area after finding two of the dead missionaries. As soon as Duran hears about the campsite attack, he sets out to find Anne and rendezvous with Payne in the desert. There, Payne is equipped with a truck that operates as a mobile laboratory. Following tire tracks from the camper van, the two men locate Anne and help her recover from dehydration. Meanwhile, Payne is confident that the bats' lair is located within sacred Maski Canyon and explains to Duran that once the exact cave has been identified, he will release a poisonous gas and exterminate the colony.
During the daytime, Payne sets up his equipment at the entrance to the canyon. At sunset, he, Anne, and Duran remain inside a wire mesh cage rigged with an electrical current and wait for the night creatures to find them. As the colony surrounds them, Payne fires an electronic tracking dart into one of the bats.
The next day, Payne follows the dart signal and climbs to the top opening of the bats' lair. While preparing to release the gas, Payne accidentally falls into the cave. However, he is able to clutch a rope in time and hangs precariously above a pool of ammonia surrounded by jagged rocks. Meanwhile, Duran accesses the cave through a lower entrance and chews on the datura root to expand his senses. Despite his insistence that Anne stay behind, she follows him. When Duran sees Payne dangling above, he instructs the scientist to swing his body toward the soft sand of the cave floor, then cut the rope. Payne survives the fall, but is severely injured. Meanwhile, the bats begin to stir as sunset nears.
Under the influence of the root, Duran sees Abner's painting on the cave floor and uses shale rock to re-close the circular border. As the creatures attack, Duran fulfills his destiny as a warrior and ignites the formation of shale rocks, creating a powerful ring of fire that destroys the vampire bat colony and engulfs the cave, apparently killing all the bats. Carrying Payne, Duran and Anne escape outside. As the threesome recuperate, Duran looks at the burning caves and believes that Abner used his powers to summon the fires to protect the sacred Maski Canyon from mining interests.
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