It is 1806; a powerful and criminal secret society has almost complete control over many of the elected officials, international finance, and commerce in the young nation. Its leaders arrange for a dissident to be brutally murdered and left floating in the Potomac River so that the body surfaces within clear site of Thomas Jefferson's White House. This criminal act is intended to send a message to the President and all those around him: 'the society's power should know no limit - elected officials - including the president - must acknowledge and support us, allow us to do whatever we want, when and wherever we choose, or suffer the consequences'.