The Freemasons have spent three centuries fending off rumors of world domination, occult ritual, and hidden control over governments and banks. This film goes looking for what is actually behind the lodge doors, using interviews with members and historians to trace the order's roots in medieval stonemasons' guilds and its transformation into the network of lodges, handshakes, and initiation rites that still exist today. It walks through the symbols carved into lodge halls and regalia, explaining what they meant to the craftsmen who first used them and what later generations read into them. The film also takes on the conspiracy theories directly, from claims of Masonic control over the founding of the United States to accusations of a shadow hand in modern politics, weighing them against what former and current members actually describe of their meetings and obligations. The picture that emerges is closer to a fraternal, charitable organization guarding old customs than a global cabal.