Psychological drama based on a true story. Sam Bicke (Sean Penn) is a salesman for an office-supply company whose life is slowly beginning to unravel. His job is going nowhere, his wife, Marie (Naomi Watts), has left him, & his boss (Jack Thompson) keeps pushing self-help books on him that make a mockery of his state of mind. One of Bicke's few friends is Bonny Simmons (Don Cheadle), an auto mechanic, & together they come up with an idea for a tyre shop on wheels. While neither has the money to finance the project, Bicke has learned of a program for small-business loans instituted by President Richard Nixon, which he's certain will come through for him. But Bicke is denied his loan, which dovetails with his increasing suspicion of the president's Vietnam policies & a sudden interest in the 'by any means necessary' political activism of the Black Panther Party. Desperate to seem important in some way, Bicke becomes increasingly obsessed with the duplicity of Richard Nixon, until he chooses to take it upon himself to stop the president once & for all.