With the banks failing and public discontent high, aging revolutionary Axel Kaspers believes the time is ripe to galvanize public reaction and spark a populist uprising. With his radical daughter Birgit and disciple Mel, Axel orchestrates the kidnapping of Continental Bankcorp president, Peter Evans. However, the carefully planned carjacking goes bad when Evans resists with surprising force and hothead Mel shoots and kills one of the nation's most powerful bankers. Detectives Nichols and Eames pursue a surviving member of the radical Baader-Meinhof gang as he stages a revolutionary terrorist campaign.