Tim Connor has just lost his father, a Vietnam Veteran, to an untimely death. His girlfriend, Allie, tries to support him, but she has plans of her own that involve leaving Baltimore and embarking on a new acting career. The death of Tim's father, however, inadvertently involves the young couple in a plot that could get them both killed.

A domestic terrorist group is planning to attack the United States government during the President's State of the Union Address. Led by the ruthless Vance Galvin, this group hopes to kill off the president, as well as everyone in his line of succession, leaving only Galvin's inside man, the Designated Survivor, to act as the commander-in-chief. This leading man will survive the DC doomsday and create an America to match the ideals that they believe the Founding Fathers wanted: a white, Christian nation.

Galvin has amassed conventional ordinance and weapons of mass destruction that will give him his revenge. He blames the US government for the death of his family at Waco, Texas, in 1993, and he hopes to purify his homeland for white, Christian Americans. Galvin believes Tim has information that could ruin the plan, but Galvin has made things too personal, which can get messy, and his perfect plan could fall to pieces at the hands of a veteran's son. Galvin kidnaps Allie, using her as a bargaining chip to get Tim's information. Tim enlists the help of a former friend-turned-enemy of Galvin, an anachronism incarcerated in a mental institution for decades for things he saw and did in Vietnam. Will this damaged man be able to help Tim rescue Allie? Will they be able to thwart the attempt to overthrow the government? Tim certainly hopes so.