Kirby Dick hires private investigator Becky Altringer to do what the Motion Picture Association of America refuses to do itself: identify the anonymous adults who decide which films get an NC-17 rating and which get an R. Altringer stakes out MPAA offices in Los Angeles, tails cars, and cross-references license plates to build a list of names the studios have kept secret for decades. Directors including Kevin Smith, Matt Stone, Kimberly Peirce, Atom Egoyan, and John Waters describe fighting the board over specific cuts, and the film lines up scenes side by side to show gay sex trimmed for content that straight sex scenes survive untouched, and simulated violence treated far more leniently than simulated pleasure. It also examines the secretive appeals process, including the two clergy members supposedly on hand to offer a religious perspective. Dick submits his own finished film to the board, gets slapped with an NC-17, and appeals it on camera, turning the investigation into a test case for the very system it is exposing.