Bradley Manning is a U.S. Army intelligence analyst stationed in Iraq when he allegedly downloads hundreds of thousands of classified war logs and diplomatic cables and passes them to WikiLeaks. Four Corners reconstructs how the case against him was built, drawing on the logs of his alleged online confession to hacker Adrian Lamo and the only known recording of Manning's voice. The film follows the parallel hunt for Julian Assange, tracing the standoff between government investigators and the hacker networks trying to protect WikiLeaks. It also examines what happened to Manning after his arrest: prolonged solitary confinement at Quantico Marine Corps Base, which the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, describes on camera as cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. Interviews and documents move between the mechanics of the leak itself and the question of how the U.S. military justice system treated the soldier accused of causing it. The film keeps Assange's trial in the background throughout, using it to frame Manning as the case's less-watched but more severely punished figure.