Connelly Anders, a George Washington University sociology graduate student, discovers classified research documents in his professor’s office and is catapulted into a top secret conspiracy. 

The research predicts the collapse of our economy, political system, social order, and organized religion if extraterrestrial contact became public knowledge. Connelly links the research to a covert operation in Mexico that studies cultural reaction to UFOs and to a curious reference about the resilience of the Mormon religion if alien contact is made.

James Jarvis, the embattled director of the secret government project, code named Rubicon, tracks Connelly to Mexico and Utah. Rubicon is designed to align society with the Conae, a race of religious extraterrestrials whose beliefs are similar to Mormon culture and doctrine, before they initiate a hostile invasion. Jarvis confronts Connelly and intimidates him by forcing his pregnant wife off the road, threatening his friends, and killing their informant. 

Bargaining for his life, Connelly tricks Jarvis into incriminating himself by revealing his backdoor efforts to protect mankind by influencing society through the surge of conservative media and nominating a Mormon candidate for president. Connelly escapes Jarvis and his agents, leading them on a car chase though downtown DC to the chapel doors of a nearby Mormon church.