Autumn 1948 the final tense days of the Presidential campaign between incumbent Harry S Truman and Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey. As Truman prepares for a visit to Chicago, Tribune police reporter Steve Snap Malek is warned of a plan by an anti-Semitic group to assassinate the President because of his recognition of the new state of Israel. This hate group pressures Malek to give them publicity in the Tribune. He demurs, and the menacing organization, calling itself The New Reich, begins killing Chicagoans, one a day, including a policeman and a fireman. They threaten to kill more unless Malek writes about them, although their spokesman, contacting the reporter by phone, refuses his request for an in-person interview. Malek begins his dogged hunt for the people behind The New Reich, along the way meeting maverick automaker Preston Tucker and getting a chance to drive his revolutionary new car. Finally, one week before the election, Truman arrives in Chicago for a parade, and Malek comes face-to-face with the would-be assassin, laying his own life on the line in a desperate attempt to stifle the deadly plot.