Nick Naylor is a tobacco industry lobbyist whose job is promoting cigarette smoking in an age when the health hazards of smoking are too obvious to ignore. Nick uses twisted logic and argument to place cigarette makers in the position of altruistic do-gooders or victims. When a beautiful investigative reporter for an influential Washington daily paper, played by Katie Holmes, betrays Nick's sexually-achieved trust, his world seems in danger of collapsing. Nick says he is just doing his job to pay the mortgage, but the increased scrutiny of his son and a death threat may force him to think differently.