The President of the United States is caught in a sex scandal, but doesn't want this to harm his reputation or the possibility of losing votes. Conrad Brean, one of his associates, helps distract people from the events of the scandal. Brean is what is known as a spin doctor, or someone that uses official propaganda for a cause.
Brean eventually teams up with a Hollywood film producer to create a completely fictional war. This war is meant to distract the citizens of the country from the war, and hopefully get the President out of any potential trouble. The two work together, saying that the Albanians are fighting the Americans, and they also record fake battle scenes for the mainstream media companies to spread to the public.
At first, everything works fine, and the gullible public is all too willing to believe in another war. However, the head of the CIA eventually finds out about the plot. He tells Brean to stop doing this, but Brean convinces him that the CIA wouldn't want to get on the bad side of him and the President.
The CIA then begins to work with the rival candidate for presidency. They tell the media that the war happened, but is quickly drawing to a close. Because of this, they can now focus more of the sexual scandal of the current president, which will help the opposing candidate win.
The Hollywood film producer still wants to keep things going, so he creates a tragic and magical end to the war. He says that he and some others were going on a trip to save an abandoned army veteran that the rival candidate was willing to leave behind. However, it turns out the person they hired for this job is actually insane, and he dies in a plane crash, creating a tragic end to this second fake story.
