Set in Europe and the Middle East, the plot follows the Mossad's clandestine attempt to flush out a PLO bomber named Khalil. To neutralize Khalil, they first kidnap his brother who is on a lecture tour, speaking to audiences in a ski mask about the profound suffering and losses of the Palestine under military occupation. Charlie, an anti-Zionist American actress working in London, has been lured to Greece on the pretense of shooting a wine commercial. There she meets and is seduced by Joseph, who tricks her into believing he is the masked man she met in the UK. She is kidnapped and taken to a house of Israeli Mossad spies to eventually be recruited and convinced that they, too, want peace and an end to the killing. Monitored and manipulated at every step, Charlie proves to be clever and capable by acting well in maneuvers that develop Mossad's narrative for her. Charlie arrives at a resistance headquarters in a bombed-out Palestinian city where the leader, Tayeh, is unsure about her but sends her on to a desert guerrilla training camp. Tayeh clarifies that they are not anti-Semitic, but anti-Zionist, and advances her to the next assignment. Now a double agent of sorts, under the Israeli Mossad cover of impersonating the dead man's girlfriend, she connects with a man she deduces is Khalil, based on an exploding briefcase they are preparing that has his bomb signature—a specially wrapped coil of wire. As Charlie delivers the briefcase to the "peacenik" target, Professor Minkel, the Mossad, who have been monitoring the situation, have the briefcase whisked away by a man in a bomb suit. Charlie returns to Khalil, and they drive away after the large building explosion that she knows is a false flag event harming no one, although the evening news reports casualties to fool Khalil. He is not easily disarmed, however, and fails to fall asleep as planned. He grows suspicious by the extreme quiet around their country refuge. Khalil removes the batteries from Charlie's portable radio that contains a tracker and secret button for signaling when he falls asleep. Alerted, Joseph and others of the Mossad team move in to kill Khalil, as Mossad agents kill other PLO recruiting agents. All of the Palestinian guerrillas are destroyed and engulfed by flames from jet bombers. In an Israeli hospital, Charlie is physically unharmed but emotionally wrecked, feeling betrayed because she only wanted to help Palestinians and end the killing. Ultimately, the Israeli Mossad exploited her to slaughter every Palestinian she met. Eventually she returns to acting in the UK but, too broken, walks off stage. Joseph is there and tells Charlie his real name, restates that he is finished with killing and does not know what is right and wrong, but he loves her. She says she is dead. They walk off together into the night.
The film opened to mixed reviews from critics. People Magazine began their review: "Diane Keaton will be a long time living down this film." The New York Times said "Everybody connected with the film behaves as if he were hanging onto the tail of a tiger and can't let go. They desperately clutch the material but never tame it." James Sanford in the April 9, 2004 Kalamazoo Gazette, referred to the film as an "Underrated thriller with a typically solid Keaton performance... 3/5". The Little Drummer Girl currently holds a 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on seven reviews.
