Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) has worked his way into a management position after spending many years with lysine developing company ADM. He is thrown into a position that he never dreamed would be so hard and stressful. After he is recruited as an inside spy for the FBI he unwillingly succumbs to the pressure to be an informant, reporting on the illegal price fixing that is going on in the industry and his company. Mark really begins to embrace the idea that he is a “secret agent” and tells one lie after another. When his lies catch up with him things begin to unravel fast.