The film is based on the novel "Top Secret: The President, the Director and the Agent" by Stanfield Turner, who served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1977 to 1981. Osbourne (John Malkovich) is a senior analyst at the CIA who was fired for alcoholism. Frustrated, Osbourne returns home and is not taken seriously by his wife. His wife Katie (Tilda Swinton) is a cold professional doctor who has an affair with Harry (George Clooney) from the Treasury Department and spends the spring time together on the boat. Osbourne vows to write an autobiography to reveal the top secrets of the CIA, but Katie, who wants to divorce him, mistakenly takes the records to investigate her own financial reports, and then accidentally drops them in the gym. The CD is found by the silly gym employee Linda (Frances McDormand) and the slightly stupid fitness trainer Chad (Brad Pitt). Linda, who has been worried about the cost of plastic surgery, has an idea and decides to blackmail them. The fate of this group of people has changed because of this CD.