U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell is invited to an inaugural ball by his college buddy Scott Pritchard, who intends to introduce him to Secretary of Defense David Brice. There, Farrell meets Susan Atwell, and the two begin seeing each other. Brice and Pritchard, Brice's second-in-command, later hire Farrell to get secret information from other government agencies, such as the CIA, and pass it on to Brice. Farrell also finds that he may be at times working with Sam Hesselman, an old friend now working in the Pentagon's new computer center as its chief programmer-analyst. Atwell eventually tells Farrell that she is Brice's mistress.