After an assassin named Khamel kills two Supreme Court justices, Jensen and Rosenberg, Tulane University law student Darby Shaw writes a legal brief detailing her theory on why they were killed. She gives the brief to her law professor/lover Thomas Callahan, who in turn gives a copy to his good friend Gavin Verheek, special counsel to the Director of the FBI. Soon after, a car bomb kills Callahan, but Darby manages to avoid the same fate, because Callahan refuses to give Darby the keys, and an unknown assailant subsequently attacks her. Realizing that her brief was accurate, she goes into hiding and reaches out to Verheek for assistance.