In late 2016, Roman Khaykin and Igor Ostrovskiy sit in a Russian diner. The men are private investigators in the “business of subterfuge and surveillance” (11). Khaykin begins to talk about his mysterious new client who pays well and whose assignment involves comprehensive new spying technologies which may be illegal. Khaykin offers Ostrovskiy a job. 

Ronan Farrow is an investigative journalist and the son of actress Mia Farrow and director Woody Allen. He spent much of his life dealing with tabloid attention after his father was accused of sexual assault by one of Farrow’s sisters and then married his adopted sister, Soon-Yi. One day in 2016, Farrow receives a call from his plain-speaking producer Rich McHugh to say that the NBC news network does not want his upcoming story about sexual assault to be aired.

The news schedule is currently dominated by a video from a 2005 episode of Access Hollywood in which Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump is heard making lewd remarks about women. Access Hollywood airs on NBC, and the network is criticized for having potentially “sat on” the tape by preventing its release. Excuses from the network executives are confused and hollow.