Inspired by the book The Silent Brotherhood by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, the film tells the true story of a group that terrorized the Pacific Northwest in the early 1980s with a series of increasingly violent and frequent crimes. Law enforcement and the FBI are in the dark until a lone agent stationed in a small Idaho town spots a pattern in recent bank robberies, counterfeiting operations, and armored truck assaults. This is not merely a group of criminals but a cell of white supremacists led by the charismatic Robert Jay Mathews, aiming to fund themselves to wage war against the U.S. government.