In 2029 Los Angeles, the Mercy Capital Court responds to a surge in crime by using artificial intelligence (AI) judges to try defendants for violent offenses. To assemble evidence, all devices are also registered to the municipal cloud to allow the AI judge to pass judgement. The AI judge also gives the defendants all available resources to find and provide all the evidence needed to prove their innocence in 90 minutes, or be executed via a sonic blast. Los Angeles Police Department Detective Christopher "Chris" Raven, a strong proponent of the court, is strapped to a chair, put on trial for his wife Nicole's murder, and is given 90 minutes to persuade the AI judge of his innocence. Presiding over his case is the AI Judge Maddox. All the evidence points to Chris having killed his wife, as her blood was found on his clothing and doorbell camera footage places him at their home shortly before her murder. Chris's guilt probability is 97.5%, which qualifies him for execution unless his evidence lowers it to 92% for reasonable doubt and 80% for a Mercy Trial. Since AIs are not allowed to take a human life, the chair is set on a 90 minute timer not controlled by the AI, and it is the defendant’s responsibility to lower their score and this allows the AI to unlock the chair before the timer runs out. Via Maddox's unrestricted access and abilities, Chris learns that Nicole was seeing another man, Patrick Burke. Chris's partner Jacqueline "Jaq" Diallo finds Patrick who confides that Nicole felt unable to communicate her troubles to Chris about work. Her work email records show reports of missing chemicals. Recalling hosting a work barbecue with Nicole, Chris reviews footage to better identify her co-workers. While looking for evidence, Chris confronts his relapse in sobriety following the murder of his former partner, Ray Vale, and regrets not shooting the suspect who was later acquitted. Relapsing into alcoholism led to Chris's aggression toward Nicole, and she began to consider a divorce. Maddox shows Chris records of one co-worker, Holt Charles, who had financial issues and had discussed the chemical disappearance with Robert "Rob" Nelson, Chris's sobriety sponsor. Suspecting Holt may have killed Nicole, Chris tries to contact Rob. Holt instead answers the phone and he explains that Rob is responsible for the missing chemicals. Chris reviews his daughter Britt's social media posts, which reveal that a stranger had been hiding in their basement since the barbecue. His neighbor's security cameras display a rustling in the bushes, and Rob is seen exiting the neighbor's trunk in parking lot surveillance footage. Chris sends Jaq to Rob's house, warning her and her team that he might be armed. The SWAT team arrive at Rob's house, finding it empty, but uncover detailed plans in the shed to craft a bomb. Maddox discovers that Rob's brother, David Webb, who was separated from him after Rob was adopted and given a new name, was the first person Mercy Court executed for murder. Chris realizes that Rob is orchestrating revenge against him and the Court. Chris is officially acquitted for the murder, but refuses to end the trial to exploit Maddox's unrestricted access. He tries to contact Britt, but footage from her grandparents' front door shows Rob kidnapping her and taking her into a stolen semi-truck. A bomb goes off in the shed killing most of the SWAT team. Jaq pursues Rob, who is transporting explosives toward Mercy Court to destroy the building with Chris inside. The police divert Rob away from Mercy Court, and Jaq, assuming command, orders the task force to blow up the truck. Chris pleads with Jaq but she refuses to yield to him. The bomb fails to detonate and Jaq attempts to shoot Rob directly. Rob arrives at Mercy Court, crashing into the building and causing a network glitch that requires a system reset. Maddox reboots in time to release Chris from the chair before the trial ends with his execution. Chris confronts Rob, working with Maddox to distract Rob by having Mercy Court reopen David Webb’s case and demanding Rob to submit his new evidence immediately. Chris then disarms Rob as he speaks and wants to kill him, but is talked down by Britt. Jaq arrives and shoots Rob. Rob provides new evidence that he was on the phone with David when the murder took place, but the police would not listen. Maddox confirms the call's timing and location which placed the phone away from the crime scene. Then Maddox retrieved footage that showed Jaq retrieving that phone from David, removing it from evidence, and dumping it in the river. Jaq explains she wanted to ensure that David was found guilty in the first judgement issued by an AI court to prove the system worked. Jaq and Rob are both taken into custody while Britt reconciles with Chris, whose case is formally dismissed. Maddox and Chris admit mistakes were made by humans and AI and they must learn from their mistakes.

In 2032, American middle school teacher and former molecular biologist Ryland Grace wakes up from an induced coma on the interstellar spacecraft Hail Mary, suffering from amnesia. Grace learns that he is the sole survivor of a three-person crew that was traveling towards the Tau Ceti system, 11.9 light-years from Earth. In a series of flashbacks, Grace recalls that scientists discovered a "Petrova line" of infrared light stretching from the Sun to Venus; a substance in the line, dubbed "astrophage", was proliferating on the Sun's surface, dimming the Sun at a rate that would cause catastrophic global cooling within thirty years. The head of the Petrova Taskforce, Eva Stratt, recruited Grace to study the astrophage due to his background in speculative astrobiology. Grace discovered that astrophage was composed of unicellular organisms that absorb electromagnetic radiation from the Sun and expel it for propulsion. He also learned how to breed the astrophage on Earth. Grace joined Stratt's Project Hail Mary, an international "long-shot" mission to send a crewed spacecraft to Tau Ceti, the only star in Earth's solar neighborhood not occluded by astrophage. Grace helped to breed astrophage fuel for the ship, and planned the crew's research tasks. The flight to Tau Ceti would be a suicide mission, as the ship could only carry enough fuel for a one-way trip; any findings would have to return to Earth in smaller space probes. In the present, Grace encounters an alien spacecraft (" Blip-A ") that docks with the Hail Mary. It is made of a solid form of xenon, which Grace dubs xenonite. The ship's occupant is a rock-like, five-legged alien from Erid, a planet in the 40 Eridani A system. Grace names the alien "Rocky", deduces that Eridians "see" via echolocation, and creates a machine translation system to interpret Rocky's musical language. Rocky is a mechanical engineer, and the sole survivor of the Eridians' mission to save their own star from astrophage infection. Grace and Rocky agree to work together, and quickly become close friends. As neither can survive in the other's atmosphere, Rocky works aboard the Hail Mary inside a pressurized ball of xenonite. Grace and Rocky study the Petrova line of the planet Tau Ceti e, which Grace names "Adrian", and discover that the line hosts an entire microbial biosphere. Rocky theorizes that microbial organisms in Adrian's atmosphere are consuming the astrophage, keeping the population in check. Learning that Grace cannot return home, Rocky agrees to share some of his own ship's astrophage fuel with the Hail Mary. Grace remembers that an astrophage explosion killed the original crew's science officers; with no time to train replacements, Stratt asked Grace to join the suicide mission, but he fearfully refused. During a risky maneuver to gather the astrophage predator from Adrian's atmosphere, a fuel leak causes the Hail Mary to spin uncontrollably, rendering Grace unconscious. Rocky breaks out of his ball to save Grace, but is severely injured. While Rocky recovers, Grace studies the captured astrophage predator, dubbing it "taumoeba" and selectively breeding it to survive the nitrogen in Venus's atmosphere. Rocky revives, and the two celebrate their success; Grace then recalls that Stratt had him drugged and put aboard the ship, believing he was the only one capable of completing the mission. Rocky and Grace say their goodbyes and begin their journeys back home. Shortly thereafter, Grace discovers that the taumoeba has developed a way to escape its xenonite breeding tanks, and is starting to consume Hail Mary ' s astrophage fuel. Grace transfers the taumoeba to plastic containers, but realizes that, as Rocky's ship is made entirely of xenonite, he will have no way to contain the taumoeba on his ship; it will eat his fuel, stranding him and dooming Erid. Grace decides to rescue Rocky and the Eridians rather than return home, and sends his video logs and taumoeba samples to Earth via the probes. Stratt and her team use the taumoeba to cure the Sun's astrophage infection. Meanwhile, on Erid, Grace lives in an Earth-like biodome the Eridians have constructed for him. Rocky informs him that Eridian scientists are able to prepare the Hail Mary for a return to Earth. Grace ponders the news before beginning another day of teaching science to Eridian children.

The affluent Taylor clan gathers for the 25th wedding anniversary of liberal Georgetown professor Ellen and restaurateur Paul. Attending are their four children: Cynthia, an environmental lawyer like her husband Rob; Anna, a caustic lesbian comic; the teenager Birdie, a bohemian would-be wildlife scientist; and Josh, an unsuccessful novelist – and his poised fiancée Liz Nettles, who practices greetings in a mirror before meeting the family. Liz is polite, but Ellen realizes she was a student who left Georgetown after Ellen challenged her totalitarian ideas in a paper advocating a one-party state. Liz shocks Ellen by gifting her new book, written with Josh's help, The Change: The New Social Contract, the cover showing an American flag with the stars placed at the center, supposedly to represent Americans uniting in the political center. Leaving, Liz tells Ellen privately that she is not afraid of Ellen anymore. Two years later, The Change has become hugely influential; at the Taylors' Thanksgiving gathering, Anna's assistant/lover says it helped her reconnect to her parents. Liz is now pregnant with twins, and Josh, now with a makeover, has grown more confident, even arrogant. However, the four Taylor women are not enthusiastic about Liz or the book, which is sponsored by the Cumberland Corporation. Liz gives Birdie a password to a noted virology database. Shortly after, a video of Ellen vandalizing a neighbor's "Change" American flag goes viral. In the confrontational atmosphere, Liz first feels sick, then appears to break water and go to the hospital, though later, it seems she only urinated from stress. The following year, Ellen has lost her Georgetown job. A totalitarian "Change" society is in place. Anna, beaten up when making fun of the "Change" movement at a show, is in hiding. Birdie's journalist-student boyfriend Moses drops by, but feels threatened by Josh mentioning a journalist who was dismembered, and leaves. Liz offers Birdie a job at Cumberland studying virology, which disgusts Ellen, who threatens to kill Liz. Rob joyfully announces that Cynthia is pregnant; however, when they leave, she reveals she had an abortion, fearful of bringing a child into the currently troubled world. Enraged and grieving, Rob drives off and leaves her behind. Josh offers to support Paul's failing restaurant, but Paul suspects he does it to find Anna. Josh and Liz's au pair Gerda shows Ellen a message from Anna as proof of life. A year later, Rob has joined the "Change". Cynthia, addicted to sleeping pills, lives with her parents. Census-takers ("Enumerators") arrive and ask Ellen and Paul, whose restaurant has closed, questions designed to find Anna, enraging them. The Enumerators show photos of Birdie at a protest, threatening jail; Ellen capitulates and endorses the "Change", angering Birdie, who says Ellen has sold out. The next year, at the Taylors' 30th anniversary party, Liz, dressed in red as Ellen was at the first anniversary, speaks privately to Ellen, asking her to help with Josh's unspecified strange behavior; Ellen slaps her. Liz and Josh then invite Ellen and Paul to dance to a favorite song. While they dance, a clown unexpectedly arrives. The clown enters the house and turns out to be Anna, who speaks to the confused, despondent Cynthia. Josh gets alerted by a partygoer about an attack on Cumberland and enters the house. The television news announces a horrific bio-weapon attack at the Washington, D.C. Cumberland headquarters, where Birdie works; Birdie appears on camera and performs a suicide bombing. Ellen and Paul are devastated, sobbing; Anna joins them. Josh notifies the police of Anna’s whereabouts. Cynthia stabs Josh, though not fatally. She then exits the house with the bloody knife, and police officers open fire. The police also shoot at Anna, who runs from the house and dives into the sea. The police enter the house and put bags over Ellen's and Paul's heads; Paul tries to soothe Ellen by reminding her of when he first met Ellen, in front of René Magritte 's The Lovers painting, which shows lovers with cloth-covered heads. Josh asks a policeman to keep his parents together, but the police ignore him and wrestle him to the ground. A policeman asks Liz what to do; she says that Josh is with his parents. The police remove the Taylors. Liz, having destroyed the Taylor family, looks at a picture of them in happier days; she looks distraught, but her reverie is interrupted by a small smile.

Aging former Formula One (F1) prodigy Sonny Hayes has spent the last 30 years living as a racer-for-hire, following a career-ending crash at the 1993 Spanish Grand Prix that has left him burdened by the failure to live up to his potential. After winning the 24 Hours of Daytona, he is approached by his former teammate Rubén Cervantes, owner of the struggling APXGP F1 team, who asks him to be their second driver. Rubén explains that unless APXGP wins one of the nine remaining Grands Prix of the season, his investors will sell the team. Sonny reluctantly agrees after Rubén insists that victory will prove he is the "best in the world". Sonny meets the team, including technical director Kate McKenna and ambitious rookie Joshua Pearce. Joshua fears that the failing APXGP could derail his career and aims to attract interest from another team. Sonny struggles with the modern F1 machinery but quickly diagnoses APXGP's weaknesses, proposing that the vehicles be upgraded with enhanced aerodynamics to compensate for their speed disadvantage. At the British Grand Prix, Sonny and Joshua compete against each other rather than cooperating, resulting in both crashing out. Acknowledging the team's need to secure a points finish, Sonny exploits the rules at the Hungarian Grand Prix by deliberately colliding with rivals to trigger safety car periods. This allows Joshua to close the gap to the frontrunners and secure APXGP's first top-ten finish. During the rain-affected Italian Grand Prix, Sonny advises Joshua to remain on slick tires, trading grip for speed and elevating him to second place. However, he ignores Sonny's instruction to wait for a straight before overtaking Max Verstappen, skids and flies off the track, while his car bursts into flames. Sonny rescues him, but Joshua is injured and misses the next three races. An increasingly arrogant Joshua returns at the Belgian Grand Prix and deliberately forces Sonny into a crash. Afterward, Sonny criticizes him for foolishly setting the team back for personal glory. Seeking to ease tensions, Kate organizes a poker game to highlight their similar backgrounds, after which Sonny and Kate spend the night together. He later admits to her that he races to recapture the rare moments when he feels untouchable. Following an anonymous tip alleging that Kate's car upgrades are illegal, APXGP is forced to remove them, leaving the team at a disadvantage. Frustrated—and realizing he has skipped his ritual of having a random playing card with him in the cockpit—Sonny drives recklessly during the Las Vegas Grand Prix and crashes. While he recovers, Rubén discovers that Sonny's 1993 injuries left him medically unfit for F1, with risks of blindness or death, and fires him for his own safety. APXGP board member Peter Banning then admits to Sonny that he orchestrated his signing and the anonymous tip to sabotage the team and force its sale, offering Sonny significant compensation to let APXGP fail. Meanwhile, Joshua begins applying Sonny's racing techniques, admits fault for his earlier crash, and recommits to the team. Concealing his blurred vision and headaches, Sonny persuades Rubén to let him return, just as the FIA clears Kate and restores her upgrades. At the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Joshua battles Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc for the lead. After Sonny is caught in a minor crash, the race is red-flagged, allowing APXGP to repair both cars before a three-lap sprint to the finish. On the restart, Sonny overtakes Leclerc and sacrifices his own chance of victory by holding off Hamilton so Joshua can move into first. On the final lap, Hamilton and Joshua collide, clearing the way for Sonny to take his first F1 win and secure APXGP's future. Joshua is offered a seat with Mercedes but declines. As the team celebrates, Sonny quietly prepares to leave, parting on good terms with Joshua and promising to see Kate soon. Some time later, he lines up for the Baja 1000. When asked what he is racing for, Sonny laughs.

Bull is a two-year-old mutt from Chicago who frequently humps anything that piques his interest to vent his perverse instincts. He is friends with Rocco, a proud, British-accented boxer; Fetch, a wannabe-influencer dachshund; and Lucky, a dim-witted, masochistic Jack Russell, all of whom except for Bull have been neutered, which makes them a target of ridicule from the haughty, self-absorbed Borzoi show dog Sterling. Bull also harbors a crush on his neighbour, another show dog Borzoi named Honey, but is hesitant to reveal his true feelings for her. One day, Bull's owners throw him a party where they pamper him with treats and toys. But when Bull gets to the Kool-Aid-flavored toilet water, he realizes that this means he is due to be neutered the following morning, as Luther, a Great Dane, had a similar pre-neutered experience. Bull bemoans his experience, alienates his friends as they attempt to comfort him and decides to leave home in order to save himself from being sterilized. However, he soon reconsiders when he is accosted by a large clowder of alley cats, but is rescued by his friends, who came searching for him when he ran away from his home. Reconciling, Bull and his friends barely manage to escape the cats' territory. As Bull decides to return home and face his impending neutering, Rocco convinces him to have one last wild night on the town to make sure his last night of being intact will be one to remember. The foursome get into various shenanigans, such as infiltrating a dog show that Honey is competing in alongside Sterling. Bull finally musters the courage to share his attraction to her with her until she and Sterling win, causing him to sadly leave. The group soon visits "The Humphouse", a dog-friendly version of a strip club, where Lucky falls for the intersex Dobermann bouncer, Frankie. Meanwhile, Bull is seduced by Molasses, an attractive red Borzoi who reminds him of Honey. Molasses gets Bull to knot her, just as Honey, who abandoned the dog show for Bull, stumbles upon the scene and angrily confronts him. Soon, Bull, Honey and the others are captured by animal control and taken to the dog pound, where Honey is eventually released as her owners are informed whereabouts via a chipped in her fur. Realizing that Honey and Sterling will breed due to them winning the dog show, Bull and his friends escape the pound and venture to Bull's house, though Lucky deviates from the group to reunite with Frankie. Bull manages to physically intervene between Honey and Sterling as they're about to breed. However, an oblivious Sterling unknowingly sodomizes Bull, believing to be breeding with Honey. Bull confesses his feelings for her, apologizes and then leaves. Later at night, after Bull reunites with his family, Honey lures him into a backyard treehouse, where she confesses her love for him and the pair then mate. Inevitably, Bull is neutered, but not before he becomes the father of his and Honey's litter of thirteen puppies three months later. Meanwhile, Sterling discovers that he will also be neutered, much to his horror, as Luther mocks him. Later on, Honey and her own pack of friends visit The Humphouse to watch a grizzly bear twerk, to the delight of the audience and to Bull, Rocco, Fetch and Lucky's astonishment.

Four wealthy friends meet for a retreat amidst growing global upheaval caused by AI-generated disinformation, produced and disseminated via fictional social media platform Traam. Among them are Venis "Ven" Parish, owner of Traam and the world's richest person; Jeff Abredazi, owner of Bilter, a company specializing in AI; Randall Garrett, an older member and mentor of the group who has recently received an incurable cancer diagnosis; and Hugo "Souper" Van Yalk, who, because of his $521 million net worth, is significantly less wealthy than his multi-billionaire friends. The retreat takes place at Souper's new remote Utah mountain home, dubbed "Mountainhead" (in reference to Ayn Rand 's novel The Fountainhead). Though the gathering is ostensibly an opportunity for the four men to reconnect as friends (dubbed the "Brewsters") without the interference of their usual business concerns, all four have their own ulterior motives. Ven, having fast-tracked new features to Traam that enabled the disinformation to spread, wishes to acquire Bilter for its fact-checking technology to avoid rescinding the new features and taking accountability. Randall wishes to see Traam continue to grow and progress, believing Ven's ventures could lead to a transhumanist solution for his illness. Jeff sees his net worth skyrocket as the turmoil worsens due to Bilter's fact-checking abilities, and does not want his company subsumed into Traam. Souper, feeling inferior for never having made a billion dollars, wishes to petition the others to invest in Slowzo, his "lifestyle super-app". The group tries to settle into the gathering, but soon after arriving Jeff and Ven begin arguing over Traam's effects, before the rest of them try to pressure Jeff into selling Bilter. They later snowmobile to and walk up a nearby mountain range, before conducting a Brewster ritual where they write their net worth on their chests in lipstick (ranked Ven, Randall, Jeff, and Souper). When they return, they realize the worldwide chaos caused by Traam has become worse and governments are beginning to falter, and the four get increasingly combative and exasperated. After Bilter's stock surges again, Jeff's net worth outranks Randall's, and Randall flips out on Jeff for making a big deal out of swapping Brewster hats. After Ven has a call with the President where he rebuffs attempts to either roll back or limit Traam's features, Ven, Randall, and Souper decide to use their influence to accelerate the chaos in an attempt to bring about a global technocratic dictatorship. Jeff privately approaches Randall, who is one of Traam's biggest investors, with a proposal to wrest control of the company from Ven and cooperate with the US government's desires to install security measures. Randall, believing Jeff's plan will ruin his hope of surviving cancer, discloses the scheme to Ven and Souper, and the three of them conceive a tenuous plot to kill Jeff and take control of Bilter. After two bungled attempts on his life by the other three, Jeff leads them on a chase through the house, eventually hiding out in the sauna. He is found and barricaded in by the others, who prepare to immolate him with gasoline. In desperation, Jeff hastily drafts the terms of an agreement to sign Bilter over to Traam, with the others agreeing to release him after working out the details. The next morning, Jeff is released after the contract is signed and awkwardly confronts his unapologetic friends at breakfast. The three also admit that they have lost interest in their plan to launch coups against multiple governments. As he prepares to leave Mountainhead, Jeff has a private conversation with Ven telling him he will try to fight the deal. Ven then asks him to do the deal legitimately, to which Jeff agrees on the condition that Randall be excluded. Jeff tells Ven that he believes Traam will fail even with Bilter's help, while Ven professes faith in his company. Jeff tells Ven if he does become part of Ven's company, he will eventually try to force Ven out, to which Ven replies, that is what makes it exciting. Randall witnesses the end of this exchange from afar, and rides away from Mountainhead looking dejected. The film comes to a close with Souper, having finally achieved billionaire status through the deal with Jeff, overlooking the scenery of the mountains surrounding his home while following a meditation exercise on Slowzo.

Man-su, an award-winning veteran employee at a papermaking company, lives happily in his beloved childhood home with his wife Mi-ri and their children: Si-one, Mi-ri's teenage son from a previous marriage, and Ri-one, an autistic cello prodigy. The company is bought out and a devastated Man-su is laid off after defending his fellow workers, but assures his family he will resume papermaking within three months. Thirteen months later, Man-su has been unable to find another job in the papermaking industry. His family is forced to minimize their spending, including rehoming their two dogs with Mi-ri's parents, upsetting Ri-one, whose cello teacher recommends her for expensive advanced classes. The family considers selling their home to the parents of Si-one's friend Dong-ho, and Mi-ri takes a part-time job as a dental assistant to suave dentist Jin-ho, while Man-su endures a toothache he cannot afford to treat. Man-su attempts to join the successful Moon Paper company, but is humiliated by manager Seon-chul. Wanting his job, Man-su nearly kills Seon-chul with a potted plant, but realises this will not matter unless he is the best candidate to replace him. Instead, Man-su uses a fake job advertisement to identify his chief competitors: Beom-mo and Si-jo. Retrieving his father's Vietnam War gun, he prepares to kill Seon-chul, Beom-mo, and Si-jo to eliminate his competition. Spying on Beom-mo, an unemployed drunkard, Man-su is bitten by a snake and treated by Beom-mo's dissatisfied wife, A-ra, and is later unable to stop Beom-mo from discovering A-ra's infidelity. A-ra finds Man-su confronting Beom-mo at gunpoint, leading to a struggle for the gun, but A-ra shoots Beom-mo dead and Man-su escapes. He arrives late to a costumed party, where Mi-ri dances with Jin-ho instead. A-ra and her lover bury Beom-mo, but Man-su recovers the gun. Man-su and Mi-ri accuse each other of infidelity, and she reminds him that he was a violent drunk when Si-one was very young, but they reconcile. At the shoe store where Si-jo works, Man-su recognises him as a kindred devoted father, but tricks him into staying late and feigns car trouble; when Si-jo stops to help, Man-su reluctantly shoots him and drives away with his corpse. Si-one and Dong-ho are arrested for stealing iPhones from Dong-ho's father's store, but Man-su and Mi-ri blackmail Dong-ho's father, who used the store for his own infidelity, into having Dong-ho take the blame. Detectives question Man-su about Beom-mo and Si-jo's disappearances, having linked them as unemployed paper men. Smoking on the roof, Si-one witnesses Man-su in his greenhouse trying to dismember Si-jo's corpse with a chainsaw. Unable to do so, Man-su buries the body in his garden, alongside Si-one's stolen iPhones, and plants an apple tree. Plying Seon-chul with alcohol at his remote cabin, Man-su breaks his sobriety and drunkenly extracts his own tooth. Haunted by nightmares about his father and the chainsaw, Si-one informs his mother, who digs up the tree and calls Man-su. Determined to protect his family, Man-su suffocates Seon-chul with meat and stages his death to appear as if he choked on his own vomit. Mi-ri tells Si-one that Man-su dismembered and buried a pig to nourish the apple tree, and she and Man-su come to a tense understanding. Moon Paper hires Man-su to replace Seon-chul, allowing the family to keep their home and reunite with their dogs. Ri-one's antisocial behavior improves, and Mi-ri realises her unusual drawings are actually musical compositions. The detectives reveal that A-ra has implicated Beom-mo as a gun-owner, and conclude that he murdered Si-jo and went on the run, lifting suspicion off Man-su. At his new job, Man-su celebrates alone in a modern paper mill run by machines instead of workers.

"Ghetto" Pat Calhoun and Perfidia Beverly Hills are lovers and members of a far-left militant revolutionary group, the French 75. While breaking out detained immigrants from Otay Mesa Detention Center, Perfidia sexually humiliates the commanding officer, Steven J. Lockjaw, who becomes obsessed with her sexually. Later, when Lockjaw catches Perfidia planting a bomb, he lets her go after she agrees to his demand to meet him for sex. Soon after, Perfidia becomes pregnant. After Perfidia gives birth to a girl named Charlene, Pat tries to persuade her to settle down, but she instead abandons Pat and Charlene to continue her revolutionary activities. Perfidia is arrested after murdering a security guard during a botched bank robbery. Lockjaw arranges for her to avoid prison in exchange for information on key French 75 members. Perfidia enters witness protection, while Lockjaw uses the information she provided to hunt down and summarily execute her comrades. French 75 member Howard Sommerville gives Pat and Charlene stolen identities as Bob and Willa Ferguson, while Perfidia flees witness protection for Mexico. Sixteen years later, living off-the-grid in the sanctuary city of Baktan Cross, California, Bob has become a paranoid stoner. He is protective of Willa, now a free-spirited and self-reliant teenager who resents Bob's substance abuse, and told her that her mother was a hero who died when she was a baby. Through his anti-immigration efforts, Lockjaw has become a colonel and a prominent figure within the U.S. security agencies. When Lockjaw is invited to become a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club, a white supremacist secret society, he seeks to kill Willa to hide his past interracial relationship with Perfidia. He hires bounty hunter Avanti Q to capture Howard, whose distress signal goes out to the remaining members of the French 75. Using an immigration and drug enforcement operation as cover, Lockjaw sends troops to Baktan Cross. French 75 member Deandra rescues Willa before her school dance is raided and takes her to a convent of revolutionary nuns, where she guesses the truth about her mother's betrayal. While high at home, Bob is warned by the French 75 about Lockjaw, whose men then raid his house. Escaping through a tunnel, Bob is helped by Sergio St. Carlos, Willa's karate sensei and a community leader, who also evacuates immigrants via a hidden passage. After learning about the convent from another French 75 member, Bob flees with Sergio's students across rooftops but falls and is arrested, although not recognized. The Christmas Adventurers find evidence of Lockjaw's relationship with Perfidia, including the possibility that he had a child with her, and send member Tim Smith to kill him and Willa. By tracing her phone, Lockjaw locates Willa at the convent, where Deandra is arrested. Holding Willa hostage, Lockjaw tests their DNA in front of her, confirming she is his biological daughter. Sergio arranges Bob's escape and drives him to the convent, throwing him out of the car when police begin to pursue them. Bob steals a car and reaches the convent, unsuccessfully attempting to kill Lockjaw with Sergio's rifle. Lockjaw hires Avanti to kill Willa, but after refusing over her age, Avanti agrees instead to deliver her to a far-right militia. Tim tracks down Lockjaw while driving and shoots him in the face. While searching for Willa, Bob discovers Lockjaw's body and crash site. Avanti brings Willa to the militia, but after a change of heart, frees her and is killed in a shootout with the militia. Willa escapes with Avanti's car and pistol, only for Tim to begin tailing her as Bob tries to catch up. Willa lures Tim into a crash by exploiting a blind summit, shooting and killing him when he fails to recite the revolutionary countersign. Bob finds Willa and they embrace. Some time later, a severely scarred Lockjaw is seemingly welcomed into the Christmas Adventurers Club, but is fatally gassed and cremated shortly afterward. Returning home with Willa, Bob gives her a letter from Perfidia, in which she apologizes for her actions and vows to someday reunite with her family. Later, Bob gives Willa his blessing as she departs for a protest in Oakland.

American actor Phillip Vanderploeg lives in Tokyo and constantly searches for work following his success in a toothpaste commercial seven years earlier. He is stuck taking minor roles until he is hired by Rental Family, a company that provides actors to play stand-in family members and friends for strangers. Initially reluctant due to its absurd premise, Phillip, desperate for funds, takes more jobs after the company's owner, Shinji, insists that they need a " token white guy ". Phillip is hired to act as the fiancé of Yoshie, who wants to perform a traditional wedding for her parents. Phillip nearly bails, reluctant to lie to Yoshie's family, but his co-worker Aiko convinces him to commit. Phillip later discovers that Yoshie is a closeted lesbian who is already married and is planning to depart to Canada with her wife. They profusely thank him for his help, giving him a different perspective on the job. Phillip takes on two long-term jobs - in one, he acts as the estranged father of a young half-Japanese girl named Mia, whose single mother, Hitomi, believes that presenting Phillip as Mia's real father will help Mia enroll in a private school. In another, Phillip is hired by a woman named Masami to act as a journalist profiling her father Kikuo Hasegawa, a retired actor with dementia; Masami hopes Phillip will make Kikuo feel remembered. Phillip forms strong bonds with Kikuo and Mia, who initially resents her "father" for abandoning her but eventually warms up to him. Phillip's agent informs him that he has landed a highly coveted role, which he declines for Mia's sake. Hitomi warns Phillip against getting too close to Mia and is offended when he criticizes her for planning Mia's whole life for her. At Masami's insistence, Phillip reluctantly declines Kikuo's request to take him to his abandoned childhood home in Amakusa. He also learns that some of Aiko's jobs involve her pretending to be a mistress apologizing to the wives of unfaithful husbands, often resulting in her being physically assaulted. Phillip is reluctant to lose the connections he has made, but Shinji asserts that parting ways with clients is a brutal but inevitable part of the job. Following the successful school interview, Phillip is forced to tell Mia that he must return to the United States. His time with her inspires him to take Kikuo to Amakusa. There, Kikuo finds a time capsule containing pictures of himself with his first wife, who died of an illness shortly after he left her to pursue his acting career in Tokyo; he breaks down upon seeing the photos and tearfully thanks Phillip for bringing him. Shinji calls Phillip and berates him for "kidnapping" Kikuo, but Phillip accuses him of using Rental Family to soullessly fill empty holes rather than make genuine connections. Kikuo collapses from exhaustion and is rushed to the hospital by Phillip, who is arrested for Kikuo's abduction. Mia discovers Phillip's true identity when her friend recognizes him on television. She is initially upset with her mother for lying to her, but later forgives her. During another session where Aiko acts as a man's mistress, she breaks character, informs the man's wife of the truth, and makes an oral resignation to Shinji. At home, a perplexed Shinji dismisses his "wife" and teenage "son," revealing them to be rented actors. Aiko and her co-worker Kota pretend to be lawyers interviewing Kikuo in an attempt to exonerate Phillip. Shinji also arrives, posing as a police detective. They convince Masami not to press charges against Phillip. Some time later, Kikuo dies in his sleep. Aiko, Shinji, Kota, and Phillip attend his funeral, where Phillip lays the photos from the time capsule on his body. Phillip visits Mia, who was accepted into the school. He reintroduces himself to her with his real name, and the two continue to spend time together as friends. Phillip and Aiko continue working at Rental Family, which discontinues the "apology services" that led to Aiko's abuse. Phillip returns to the Shinto shrine he once prayed at with Kikuo; having previously declined Kikuo's invitation to see what he was praying to, he looks inside, sees his reflection in a mirror, and smiles.