A crowded restaurant in Washington, D.C. A powerful Congressman is lunching with a wealthy contributor who suddenly rises and shoots the Congressman dead in front of a hundred witnesses. Quietly, he resumes his seat, placing the gun on the table as he awaits the authorities. Thus begins ten days of terror, ten days in which the nation teeters on the brink of anarchy. Inadvertently drawn into this murderous conspiracy is Paul Castle, a once promising newspaper reporter, now the host of a third rate cable show that deals in sleaze and scandal. Castle suddenly finds himself a pawn in a series of bizarre murders that have gripped the nation in fear. Secretly aided by an avuncular New York homicide detective and hounded by an ambitious FBI agent, Castle seeks to get to the bottom of the mystery and in the process, regain his lost self-respect. With the future of the country at stake, he knows he cannot afford to fail.