New York, September 2004. Mary Mapes is universally respected and appreciated as the producer of "60 Minutes," the country's most successful TV news magazine. In addition to her professional success, she also leads a happy private life with her family. But when, in the middle of the "Bush vs. Kerry" presidential campaign, her team is leaked explosive information about documents from the 1970s that are supposed to prove that George W. Bush, with the help of his family, avoided military action in the Vietnam War, her life is thrown off course. Mapes and respected CBS anchorman Dan Rather reveal the information as part of an investigative report on "60 Minutes." The report hits like a bomb. But within a very short time, it's suddenly not Bush's military file that's at the center of the scandal. It's Mapes, Rather and their team who must defend their story and their research under the harshest attacks from the media and the public. While Dan Rather, Mary's longtime colleague and fatherly friend, has complete faith in his producer, the attacks push Mary to her personal limits as her father and even her own network turn against her. A battle for personal and journalistic integrity and independence begins.