Vladimir Putin's rise from KGB officer to Russian president frames this account of what the film calls a decades-long campaign of political warfare aimed at the West. Director Jack Bryan interviews senators John McCain and Michael McFaul, journalists, and former intelligence officials to trace Russian money and influence operations through Ukraine, Montenegro, and eventually the 2016 US election. The film lays out the Trump Organization's business dealings in Russia, Paul Manafort's work for pro-Russian politicians in Kiev, and the hacking and leak operations targeting the Democratic National Committee, arguing these are pieces of a single coordinated strategy rather than isolated events. Archival news footage and congressional testimony are cut alongside the interviews to build a timeline stretching back to the Soviet era. The film takes a clear position, treating collusion between Trump associates and Russian state actors as established rather than merely alleged, and asks viewers to weigh the evidence it assembles for that claim.