Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People) and Sean Penn (Mystic River) deliver superb performances in a true-story spy thriller that is scathing, arresting and laced with white-knuckle excitement. From legendary director John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) and writing great Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List) comes a film that blows the lid off the modern-day American dream in this riveting story of two young men of privilege, money and ambition who end up selling government secrets to the Russians. Christopher Boyce (Hutton) works a low-level job at a defense plant where he uncovers documents that prove that the C.I.A. is secretly coercing foreign governments. He confides in his friend, Daulton Lee (Penn), a reckless drug dealer and user, who convinces him to sell this information to the Soviets for big bucks. Lee boldly cuts a deal with the KGB, but soon the stakes spin out of control as the Soviets up the ante. Lee descends further into drug abuse, and the C.I.A. prepare to take the informants down.