A few years after Jamaica's independence, the Caribbean island state is politically divided and is on the verge of civil war. Reggae singer Bob Marley, who comes from a simple condition, has also become the greatest star of his home country and tries to unite people with his music and thus end the conflict. Before a peace concert in 1976, unknown persons invade his property, shooting Rita Ritain his head and wound Bob and his manager Don Taylor heavily. Although all the victims survive and Bob even plays the concert, he considers permanent remaining in Jamaica too unsafe.
While Rita moves with their children to Delaware to Bob's mother Cedella, the reggae star and his band The Wailers settled in London. Under the supervision of music producer Chris Blackwell, the legendary Exodus album is being created in the British capital, which soon achieved worldwide success. Bob and the Wailers are then planning to perform in Africa following a European tour and lay the foundation for a new infrastructure there.
In the marriage of Bob and Rita, there is a crisis. Rita is not only bothered by the constant love affairs of her husband, from which children who have sprung from old, mostly have to raise her, but also to his increasing alienation from his fundamental values. Bob realizes that he has to devote more himself to the people and violates his manager Don Taylor, who has secretly diverted money from the planned Africa tour. The conflict with Rita was overshadowed by a cancer diagnosis in the summer of 1977, whereupon both reconcile.
By meantime, as Bob was guaranteed to be security by the leading gangs in Jamaica, the reggae singer returns to his homeland in 1978. There he plays with the Wailers at the One Love Peace Concert, where he unites the chairmen of the two competing parties on stage and thus temporarily ends the armed conflict. Two years later, as planned, it comes to a first appearance in Zimbabwe before Bob died as a result of his cancer in 1981.
