The film continues immediately after the events of Casino Royale with Bond driving from Lake Garda to Siena, Italy. With the captured Mr. White in the luggage compartment of his car, he is attacked by chasing henchmen. After evading his pursuers, Bond and M interrogate White regarding his organisation, Quantum. M's bodyguard Mitchell is revealed as a traitor, attacking M and allowing White to escape; Bond chases Mitchell across Siena, through the crowd assembled for the Palio di Siena, and kills him. After forensic investigations finds tracked banknotes in Mitchell's London apartment, Bond heads to Haiti to find Mitchell's contact, Edmund Slate, killing him as well. Posing as Slate, Bond learns that Slate was sent to kill Camille Montes at the behest of her lover, Dominic Greene, the ruthless chairman of ecological organization Greene Planet and a member of Quantum. Bond pursues her by motorbike and watches her meet with Greene, learning the businessman is helping General Medrano stage an overthrow of the government in Bolivia in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of desert land.
Greene has Camille escorted away on Medrano's boat to "sweeten" their deal. Bond commandeers his own boat to rescue her and leaves her in local care. Bond follows Greene to a private jet, which flies him to Austria accompanied by CIA agent Gregg Beam and Felix Leiter. Beam offers the United States' support of the overthrow in return for preferential leases to Bolivian oil, which he believes Greene to have discovered. In return, Greene requests that the CIA eliminate Bond's interference, to which Beam readily agrees.
On the Austrian shore of Lake Constance near Bregenz, members of Quantum, including Greene and White, gather at a performance of Puccini's opera Tosca to finalize plans for their Tierra Project, with each member communicating through special earpieces concealed in gift bags. Among the plotters is Guy Haines, an advisor of the British Prime Minister. Bond obtains an earpiece and disrupts the meeting. He then sends MI6 mobile photos of various Quantum members as they flee the theater. As Greene abruptly departs from the opera, he is intercepted by Bond and a gunfight ensues in a restaurant. Bond confronts and defeats a bodyguard of Haines on a rooftop and throws him off the side, landing on Greene's vehicle. Greene recognises that the bodyguard is not a Quantum member and has him killed.
Bond is unaware that he killed Haines' Special Branch bodyguard. M is angered, revoking Bond's passports and credit cards, and demanding he return to London. Bond is still able to travel to Italy by boat, where he reunites with his old ally René Mathis. Bond persuades the retired agent, once stationed in Bolivia, to accompany him to La Paz. They are greeted by Strawberry Fields, an MI6 field operative from the British Consulate. Fields demands that Bond return to the UK on the next available flight, but he disobeys and seduces her in their hotel suite. That night, they attend a fund raiser being held by Greene, where Camille reappears. Bond and Camille leave together, but are quickly pulled over by the Bolivian police. The police immediately ask Bond to open the luggage compartment, where he finds a beaten Mathis. As Bond picks Mathis up, the policemen open fire and fatally injure Mathis. Bond disarms and kills the policemen and comforts the dying Mathis, who asks Bond to forgive Vesper Lynd, and forgive himself for what happened to her.
Bond and Camille drive to the location of Greene's intended land acquisition, surveying the area in a Douglas DC-3 propeller plane. They are intercepted and shot down by an Aermacchi SF-260 fighter and a Bell UH-1 helicopter, forcing them to escape from the crippled plane by parachuting into a sinkhole. Attempting to escape the cave, they discover Greene's Tierra Project does not involve oil, but rather water: Quantum is blockading Bolivia's supply of fresh water, normally flowing in underground rivers, by damming it into hidden reservoirs beneath the desert. Bond also learns that Camille's family was raped and murdered by Medrano and that she is seeking revenge. After these revelations, they return to La Paz, where Bond meets M and discovers Quantum murdered Fields by symbolically drowning her in oil. M orders Bond to disarm and end his activities in Bolivia, but he escapes by overpowering the MI6 operatives accompanying him in a lift, telling M before departing that he is not finished with his operation.
Bond meets his CIA ally Felix Leiter at a local bar, who defies his superior Beam and informs Bond of where Greene is set to complete his deal with Medrano. Bond flees when CIA Special Activities Division forces arrive to eliminate him as a threat to Beam's deal with Greene. Bond and Camille go to an eco-hotel powered by hydrogen fuel cells, located in the Bolivian desert, where Greene is finalising the overthrow. As the various parties depart, Bond attacks and kills the departing Colonel of Police for betraying Mathis, and sets off a chain of explosions when a hydrogen fuel tank is hit by an out of control vehicle. Camille kills Medrano, and Bond captures Greene. After interrogating him, he leaves Greene stranded in the middle of the desert with only a can of motor oil. Bond drives Camille to a train station, where they finally kiss before she departs.
Greene has Camille escorted away on Medrano's boat to "sweeten" their deal. Bond commandeers his own boat to rescue her and leaves her in local care. Bond follows Greene to a private jet, which flies him to Austria accompanied by CIA agent Gregg Beam and Felix Leiter. Beam offers the United States' support of the overthrow in return for preferential leases to Bolivian oil, which he believes Greene to have discovered. In return, Greene requests that the CIA eliminate Bond's interference, to which Beam readily agrees.
On the Austrian shore of Lake Constance near Bregenz, members of Quantum, including Greene and White, gather at a performance of Puccini's opera Tosca to finalize plans for their Tierra Project, with each member communicating through special earpieces concealed in gift bags. Among the plotters is Guy Haines, an advisor of the British Prime Minister. Bond obtains an earpiece and disrupts the meeting. He then sends MI6 mobile photos of various Quantum members as they flee the theater. As Greene abruptly departs from the opera, he is intercepted by Bond and a gunfight ensues in a restaurant. Bond confronts and defeats a bodyguard of Haines on a rooftop and throws him off the side, landing on Greene's vehicle. Greene recognises that the bodyguard is not a Quantum member and has him killed.
Bond is unaware that he killed Haines' Special Branch bodyguard. M is angered, revoking Bond's passports and credit cards, and demanding he return to London. Bond is still able to travel to Italy by boat, where he reunites with his old ally René Mathis. Bond persuades the retired agent, once stationed in Bolivia, to accompany him to La Paz. They are greeted by Strawberry Fields, an MI6 field operative from the British Consulate. Fields demands that Bond return to the UK on the next available flight, but he disobeys and seduces her in their hotel suite. That night, they attend a fund raiser being held by Greene, where Camille reappears. Bond and Camille leave together, but are quickly pulled over by the Bolivian police. The police immediately ask Bond to open the luggage compartment, where he finds a beaten Mathis. As Bond picks Mathis up, the policemen open fire and fatally injure Mathis. Bond disarms and kills the policemen and comforts the dying Mathis, who asks Bond to forgive Vesper Lynd, and forgive himself for what happened to her.
Bond and Camille drive to the location of Greene's intended land acquisition, surveying the area in a Douglas DC-3 propeller plane. They are intercepted and shot down by an Aermacchi SF-260 fighter and a Bell UH-1 helicopter, forcing them to escape from the crippled plane by parachuting into a sinkhole. Attempting to escape the cave, they discover Greene's Tierra Project does not involve oil, but rather water: Quantum is blockading Bolivia's supply of fresh water, normally flowing in underground rivers, by damming it into hidden reservoirs beneath the desert. Bond also learns that Camille's family was raped and murdered by Medrano and that she is seeking revenge. After these revelations, they return to La Paz, where Bond meets M and discovers Quantum murdered Fields by symbolically drowning her in oil. M orders Bond to disarm and end his activities in Bolivia, but he escapes by overpowering the MI6 operatives accompanying him in a lift, telling M before departing that he is not finished with his operation.
Bond meets his CIA ally Felix Leiter at a local bar, who defies his superior Beam and informs Bond of where Greene is set to complete his deal with Medrano. Bond flees when CIA Special Activities Division forces arrive to eliminate him as a threat to Beam's deal with Greene. Bond and Camille go to an eco-hotel powered by hydrogen fuel cells, located in the Bolivian desert, where Greene is finalising the overthrow. As the various parties depart, Bond attacks and kills the departing Colonel of Police for betraying Mathis, and sets off a chain of explosions when a hydrogen fuel tank is hit by an out of control vehicle. Camille kills Medrano, and Bond captures Greene. After interrogating him, he leaves Greene stranded in the middle of the desert with only a can of motor oil. Bond drives Camille to a train station, where they finally kiss before she departs.
Bond goes to Kazan, Russia, where he confronts Vesper Lynd's former lover, Yusef Kabira. Yusef is a member of Quantum who seduces high-ranking women who have valuable connections, to get them to give up government assets as ransom for himself in fake kidnappings where he is supposedly held hostage. He is attempting to do the same with Canadian agent Corinne Venneau, even giving her the same kind of necklace he gave Vesper. Surprising them at Yusef's apartment, Bond tells Corinne about Vesper and advises her to alert the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Bond leaves Yusef's apartment and is confronted by M who is surprised that Bond did not kill Yusef, but rather left him alive for questioning. M reveals that Leiter has been promoted at the CIA to replace Beam, and that Greene was found in the desert, shot dead with motor oil in his stomach. Bond doesn't volunteer any information on Greene, but tells M that she was right about Vesper. M then tells Bond that MI6 needs him and fully reinstates him as an agent. Bond then tells M that he never actually left the service and then walks off into the night, aware that Mr. White and the rest of Quantum are still on the loose. Finally being able to forgive Vesper, Bond drops her necklace in the snow.
