The story follows , a Kyrati-American who returns to his birthplace to scatter his mother’s ashes at a place called Lakshmana . Upon arrival, he is intercepted by the flamboyant and eccentric dictator Pagan Min , who claims to have loved Ajay's mother.

: A progressive who wants to modernize Kyrat, even if it means funding the nation through the drug trade.

Ajay escapes and joins the , a rebel movement founded by his late father, Mohan Ghale. The story is defined by the ideological conflict between the movement's two leaders:

Watch the opening moments of Ajay's journey and his first encounter with Pagan Min: