CIA operative Bill Pope is on a mission in London to prevent a global catastrophe. He possesses critical information about a hacker, known as "The Dutchman," who has gained access to the U.S. military's missile control systems and plans to hand over control to a group of terrorists. During a covert meeting, Pope is ambushed and killed before he can relay his key intel or the location of The Dutchman to his superiors at the CIA. Desperate to retrieve Pope's knowledge and stop the impending threat, the agency turns to an experimental, and highly controversial, neurosurgery procedure.

The agency recruits Jericho Stewart, a violent and unpredictable death-row inmate with a brain injury that renders him incapable of empathy or understanding right from wrong—a perfect candidate for the procedure. By transplanting Pope's memories and skills into Jericho's brain, the CIA hopes to complete the mission that Pope started. Initially, the transplant seems to fail, as Jericho retains his own personality and experiences fragmented flashes of Pope's memories. But as fragments coalesce, Jericho begins to experience emotional responses for the first time and finds himself entangled in Pope's personal life, including connections with Pope's widow and child, which compels him to deal with the profound complexity of his newfound consciousness.