Three stories converge when a professor and an apathetic student discuss the nature of activism, a Republican senator tries to sell a journalist on the government's new miltary strategy, and two of the professor's former students fighting in Iraq find themselves trapped behind enemy lines. Two determined California college students, Arian and Ernest, follow the inspiration of their idealistic professor, Dr. Malley, and attempt to do something important with their lives. The two make the bold decision to join the battle in Afghanistan. Dr. Malley is both moved and distraught. Now, as Arian and Ernest fight for survival in the field and the human consequences of war becomes clear for these two students trapped behind enemy lines. They become the string that binds together the two opposite sides of America. In California, the anguished Dr. Malley attempts to reach a privileged but disaffected student who is the very opposite of Arian and Ernest. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C. the charismatic presidential hopeful, Senator Jasper Irving, is about to give a bombshell story to a probing TV journalist that just might affect Arian and Ernest's fates.