Plot

In a stand off in a busy city, a man threatens to kill himself, Detective Regis intervenes and stops the man, Detective Regis's team get the gun away from the man, turns out the gun was on safety. In the Orval office a man and woman are shown having sex.

In a restroom in the White House in Washington D.C., a janitor finds the body of White House secretary Carla Town (Mary Moore). Homicide detective Harlan Regis (Wesley Snipes), whose apartment block is awaiting demolition in favor of a parking lot, is put on the case.

At the White House, Regis is introduced to secret service chief Nick Spikings (Daniel Benzali), national security advisor Alvin Jordan (Alan Alda), and secret service agent Nina Chance (Diane Lane). Spikings assigns Nina to keep an eye on Regis.

On the next day, after Regis checks out the White House, Nina tells him that she won a gold medal for sharpshooting in the 1988 Olympics. Regis and Nina discover that Carla had an appointment in New York City, and a flight from New York to the Virgin Islands, with no intention of returning to the USA.

Coroner Jimmy Foley (Richard Blackburn) tells Regis and Nina that whoever had sex with Carla on the night of the murder used a condom, and left absolutely no DNA. Regis is told that White House janitor Cory Allen Luchessi (Tony Nappo) was unaccounted for on the night of the murder.

Cory is questioned, and his words lead Regis to suspect that the secret service might be involved. That night, a man breaks into Regis's apartment, and tries to kill him. Whoever is behind the murder has bugged Regis's house, and is eavesdropping on everyone. In a picture of Carla, Regis sees secret service agent Burton Cash (Nigel Bennett), who is in charge of Kyle Neil (Tate Donovan), the son of president Jack Neil (Ronny Cox) and first lady Kitty Neil (Diane Baker). Jack has been trying to deal with a situation where Americans are being held hostage in North Korea, and some people think Jack is not handling it the right way. Some people think Jack should send troops to North Korea to rescue the hostages, but Jack does not want to risk a potential second Korean War.

Regis figures out that it was Kyle who had sex with Carla on the night of the murder. Spikings forbids Nina to have any more contact with Regis. At a dance club, Regis talks to a young woman who says that Kyle once bragged that he shared Carla with Jack. Carla's uncle's company, Brookline Associates, is Jack's leading East coast fundraiser, and Brookline also owns the apartment that Carla lived in. Regis discovers that Nina used to be the agent assigned to Kyle. That night, Regis goes to Nina's house, and asks her why she never told him that she used to be the agent on Kyle's detail. Nina explains that one night, she heard noises coming from Kyle's apartment, went in, and found Kyle beating up his girlfriend. That's when Nina asked to be reassigned. Nina was replaced by Burton Cash, and the secret service covered up the beating for Kyle so he wouldn't get arrested.

On the next day, Spikings sends Agent Cooper (Tom Wright) to look for Nina, who successfully avoids Cooper. During a meeting at the White House, General Clark Tully (Harris Yulin) urges Jack to take action, and send troops to North Korea to rescue the hostages, but Jack declines, prompting Tully to call Jack a criminal. Jack tells Tully to submit his resignation.

That night, Nina tells Regis that Carla had an appointment in New York with Craig Nisker & Associates, who have sold 5 of the top 10 scandal memoirs of all time, and they know that the appointment would be a good motive for Kyle to kill Carla. Later that night, Nina and Regis meet at a restaurant, where Nina tells Regis that she has discovered that Jack and Kitty were in the White House at the time of the murder, not at Camp David like they said they were. Jack would have the same motive that Kyle would have. Upon being confronted by Regis, Kyle denies that he killed Carla, but he provides some information: among the bookings she made, Carla supposedly also ordered a car -- despite not having a driver's license.

Nina has rented a hotel room to keep the secret service from finding her, but they do anyway, and Nina and Regis escape out the back door of the building. On the next day, Regis and Nina discover that Carla's appointment book was forged, and she never had any appointments. With some clues left by Jordan, Regis finds that Spikings has withheld several surveillance tapes from the night of the murder. Regis goes to Spikings' residence to question him; Spikings is willing to show the tapes to Regis, but Spikings is suddenly killed by a sniper. However, Regis and Nina escape with the tape.

Later that day, Regis and Nina learn that Jordan is the killer, and Jordan has now framed Regis and Nina. Jordan engineered Carla Town's murder, hoping to get Jack accused of it, and force Jack into resigning, which would allow vice president Gordon Dylan (Chris Gillett) to assume office. Jordan, enraged that the hostages haven't been rescued, knows that Dylan would not be afraid to send troops to North Korea to rescue the hostages, and Jordan believes that Jack's refusal to send troops to North Korea to rescue the hostages makes Jack unfit to be president.

Regis, Nina, and Regis's partner Stengel (Dennis Miller) enter the White House tunnels while Jordan still tries to make sure Dylan can take over as president. In the tunnels, Carl (Cliff McMullen), the sniper who killed Spikings for Jordan, shoots Stengel, and Nina kills Carl. Pursued by the Secret Service, Regis just barely manages to get in contact with Jack, and present him with the evidence of Jordan's conspiracy. Nina and Regis are grabbed, and in a hallway in the White House, there is a confrontation in which Jordan tries to shoot Jack, only for his shot to be intercepted by a handcuffed Nina, and Secret Service agents fatally shoot Jordan.

Nina and Stengel are taken to a hospital, where they recover from their injuries. In gratitude for his rescue, Jack promises Regis that he'll look into the commission that bought Regis's building and wants to destroy it.