Cleric Abdul Aziz Ghazi is waging jihad against the Pakistani state. His dream is to impose a strict version of Sharia law throughout the country, as a model for the world. A flashpoint in Aziz's holy war took place in 2007, with the Siege of the Red Mosque. During a standoff with the Pakistani military, the government leveled Aziz's flagship mosque to the ground, killing his mother, brother, only son and 150 students. The filmmakers follow Aziz on his personal quest to create an Islamic utopia, during the bloodiest period in Pakistan's modern history. The film also follows the lives of two teenage students who have attended madrasas (Islamic seminaries) run by Aziz's Red Mosque network. Throughout the film, their paths diverge: Talha, 12, detaches from his moderate Muslim family and decides to become a jihadi preacher. Zarina, also 12, escapes her madrasa and joins a regular school. Over the next few years, Zarina's education is threatened by frequent Taliban attacks on schools like her own. Aziz’s foil is nuclear physicist and leading educational activist Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy. He passionately opposes Aziz through his public appearances, lectures, and the media. Opposition against Aziz comes to a head in December, 2014, when Aziz insults a grieving nation by trying to justify the brutal massacre of 132 school children in Peshawar by the Taliban. The attack ignites a movement to end extremism in Pakistan’s mosques and madrasas. Led by Hoodbhoy and others, Pakistan's moderate majority focuses on Aziz and calls for his arrest.

Pepe the Frog, a character created by Matt Furie and first featured in a comic on MySpace called Boy's Club, is one of four twentysomething postcollegiate slacker friends who live together. In one installment, Pepe is caught by one of his housemates with his pants around his ankles, urinating. Asked why, he replies, "Feels good man". The image becomes a viral Internet meme and is co-opted by the alt-right. Furie attempts to take Pepe back from the alt-right who have turned him from a cartoon character into a symbol for hate. The film deals with the question of whether Pepe can be redeemed. The coda of the film alludes to Pepe's appropriation by pro-democracy demonstrators during the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests.

Kurt Cobain is born in 1967 to car mechanic Donald Cobain and waitress Wendy Cobain. In 1970, shortly after his sister Kim is born, the family moves to Aberdeen, Washington. Kurt lives a normal childhood, although Donald occasionally picks on him. At the age of nine, his parents divorce. Kurt lives with Donald for a while until the latter marries Jenny Westeby and they have a kid together. He moves back in with Wendy and as a teenager, he becomes unruly and starts smoking pot with friends. He and his friends start to visit the home of a developmentally challenged high school classmate to steal alcohol belonging to her father. It becomes a hard time for Cobain, who considers suicide for the first time. After he attempts to have sex with the girl, his classmates begin insulting and shaming him. Unable to take the ridicule, Cobain lies down on the train tracks one night with the intent of ending his life by being run over by an oncoming train, but the train is diverted on the track next to Kurt, barely missing him. After Kurt becomes homeless and living with friends, he eventually gets his own place at 17 and, in 1987, starts a rock band called "Nirvana" with former classmate Krist Novoselic on bass, Aaron Burckhard on drums, and himself on guitar. Nirvana's first "shows" consist of playing for a few friends and random passersby at local house parties. They eventually start playing at clubs and radio stations and Kurt starts dating Tracy Marander. The band, now with Chad Channing on drums, signs onto record label Sub Pop and they release their first album, Bleach. The band starts to have interviews and doing tours. After a short while, Kurt breaks up with Tracy. Nirvana leaves Sub Pop to sign onto DGC Records and Chad leaves the band, with Dave Grohl filling Chad's spot as the new drummer. Under DGC Records, Nirvana records their landmark second album, Nevermind. The album's lead track, " Smells Like Teen Spirit ", becomes a massive hit and the band is launched into the mainstream. Kurt meets Courtney Love and they start dating. In 1992, they get married after they find out she is pregnant, but at the same time Kurt begins using heroin. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Courtney mentions Kurt's heroin habit and that she tried it as well; Lynn Hirschberg, the journalist in charge of the interview, writes that Courtney used the drug while pregnant, misquoting her. Shortly after their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, is born, they are confronted by the Los Angeles County Department of Children's Services, who take the Cobains to court, claiming that the couple's drug usage makes them unfit parents. Due to the claims made in the Vanity Fair article, Seattle child welfare agents remove the couple's baby daughter for around four weeks. The couple eventually obtains custody in an exchange for agreeing to provide urine tests and receiving regular visits from a social worker. After months of legal negotiations, the couple is eventually granted full custody of their daughter. Kurt's heroin use continues as the band records their third and ultimately final studio album, In Utero, in 1993. The band begins a new arena tour and adds Pat Smear of the punk rock band Germs as an additional guitarist for the tour. Cobain starts to turn pale while suffering withdrawal. Not long after returning home, Cobain's heroin use resumes. The band continues touring into early 1994, including a December 16, 1993 performance on the cable television channel MTV as part of their MTV Unplugged series, joined by Smear, cellist Lori Goldston, and brothers Christopher "Cris" and Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets. After being diagnosed with bronchitis and severe laryngitis, he flies to Rome the next day for medical treatment, and is joined there by Courtney, on March 3, 1994. The next morning, Love awakes to find that Cobain has overdosed on a combination of champagne and Rohypnol. Cobain is immediately rushed to the hospital and spends the rest of the day unconscious. After five days in the hospital, Cobain is released and returns to Seattle. The screen cuts to black and a line of text appears stating: "One month after returning from Rome, Kurt Cobain took his own life. He was 27 years old." The credits then begin.

The film opens with Futerman explaining to the audience that she wants to share the crazy story that happened to her a few days previously. It introduces her family and explains that she received a friend request on Facebook from a stranger, and when she looks at the account's profile picture, she sees her own face looking back at her. She accepts the friend request, and receives a message from Bordier hinting strongly that they may be twins and asking her for more details of her birthplace. The two women then text back and forth and agree to speak to each other on Skype. After the two women experience their first video call, they can confirm that they do in fact bear a striking resemblance to each other, and from that point set out to prove whether they are sisters, and furthermore if they are in fact twins. Futerman visits twin expert Dr. Nancy Segal and the two women take DNA samples together while using Skype. A trip to London is organized and using friends as buffers, the women finally meet. That evening, they both speak to Dr. Segal over Skype who confirms it is beyond doubt that they are identical twins. The film documents their further experiences, including Bordier's visit to Futerman in California, and the twins' subsequent trip to Seoul for the International Korean Adoptee Associations Conference. All along, they have pursued their birth mother, who denies having the twins. At the end, they compose a message to this woman, to thank her for giving them life.