Quinn Pennyman, a reporter for a newspaper in a small West Virginia town, meets an up and coming Harvard-trained lawyer named Wilson Kerr, a current real estate agent running for city council. As Pennyman hones his writing and reporting skills, Kerr rises in power and, in an eventual run for governor of the state hires Pennyman as his chief-of-staff. As time passes, however, the two quarrel over the role of so-called independent Super PACs in campaign fund raising. Eventually Pennyman finds himself a reporter again and Kerr running for President. With the FEC stalled in party politics, investigative reporting reveals that Kerr's Super PAC may be flirting with money invested by suspicious sources. And matters suddenly become life and death more than win or lose.