Scott Noble's documentary traces the history of American empire through the lens of what it calls the 'power principle': the idea that concentrated wealth and state power act together, regardless of which party or ideology sits on top. Archival footage and narration move from the early twentieth century through the Cold War, tracking how corporate interests, intelligence agencies, and successive administrations shaped foreign policy under the language of democracy and free markets. The film draws a line from figures like Woodrow Wilson through the postwar national security state, arguing that propaganda at home was as essential to empire as force abroad. Historians, journalists, and declassified documents are used to back specific claims about coups, interventions, and economic exploitation carried out in the name of American interests. The tone is openly critical of plutocracy and capitalism as organizing principles of US policy, and the film builds its case methodically rather than through shock footage, treating each historical episode as evidence toward a larger argument about who power actually serves.