The film follows Steve Vail, a disillusioned and hardened former CIA field agent who has become a bricklayer. When three international journalists are murdered, the CIA recruits Vail to track down Victor Radek, a former CIA asset who has gone rogue and is framing the agency for the killings. Vail must determine who the traitor in the CIA is, stop Radek's killing spree, and salvage the CIA's reputation. Along the way, he is assisted by Kate, a highly trained CIA agent, though he initially treats her as a nuisance rather than an equal. The film features action sequences and a plot involving the CIA being blackmailed, with Vail's bricklaying job providing a contrast to his past as a CIA operative.