The story is set in a Soviet-style future where the government is trying to fight crime by eliminating privacy, thus creating total surveillance and de facto self-censorship. A police officer named Sal Frieland (Clive Owen) is a tough cop who is doing his best to fight crime in his city. However, things take a huge turn when he meets a hacker known as The Girl (Amanda Seyfried), with results that might lead him to blow the whistle on his own government.