On November 4, 1979, the revolution in Iran reaches its climax as Islamists storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 52 Americans hostage. But in this chaos, six manage to slip away and take refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. Realizing that it is only a matter of time before they are discovered and likely killed, Tony Mendes, a CIA specialist in secretly getting people out of the country, proposes a risky plan for safe evacuation. A plan so improbable, it's the kind of thing that only happens in the movies.