James Donovan is a Brooklyn lawyer who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible task to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot.

Sam is a misguided museum guard who loses his job, then tries to get it back at gunpoint. Max is a local TV reporter taken hostage with schoolchildren when Sam locks down the museum. It's a desperate move for Sam, a career move for Max. He's on the inside of a live exclusive. Now he must give Sam's story a heroic spin, keep a cynical network anchor at bay and above all, keep America watching. And as Max pulls the strings, the stakes grow higher, darker,...

Based on a true story, an American CNN journalist on assignment in Beirut in 1984 is captured by terrorists. The State Department wants to keep it secret, but Jerry Levin's wife contacts the kidnappers herself.