When a 20-year-old is picked up in Virginia with the components of several large explosive devices, the President and the team at State begin to examine the APF more closely. The kid's internet history shows that he has been communicating with an extreme right-wing politician in Poland.

Ware and the other hawks in the cabinet want to use this as an excuse to hold Nathan Cleminger as an enemy combatant, but Elizabeth is worried about the precedent that sets for the future abuse of citizen's civil rights. Elizabeth tries to get the Polish government to turn over its corrupt member of Parliament for questioning, but the centrist president refuses.

The team at State is finally able to produce enough evidence that the Poles agree to freeze his assets and turn over his banking records. After a lot of digging, Matt and the others discover evidence that the musician cum politician was in the pocket of the Russians.

This gives Elizabeth the leverage to get the Polish president to agree to rendition the politician to the US, but before he can be captured, the Russians (presumably) execute him, staging a suicide. The US gets blamed for ignoring Polish sovereignty, and President Demko is also targeted by the Polish nationalists.

Elizabeth convinces Conrad to open a base in Poland to help smooth things over. On her way back to the US, she stops in Berlin to meet with the Russian foreign minister and warn him to stop interfering in US politics. 

Russell brings Henry in to observe Cleminger and determine if he is a terrorist that meets the standard for treatment as a foreign combatant or not. Henry interviews the kid himself and is able to get more information out of him than the FBI was, but the kid ultimately spits in the face and declares that he wishes Elizabeth had been at the White House during the attack so that she would have been hurt.

Henry still recommends that Cleminger is tried in the US justice system since the system devised by the founding fathers has yet to fail. Russell struggles to understand how Henry can be merciful to somebody who was likely part of the attack that hurt Stevie and killed June and then offers him a position as Presidential Ethics Advisor. 

Stevie struggles to get back to normal after the attack. She feels guilty about June's death, but perhaps more about her last words to the older woman. She pushes herself too far, too fast in an attempt to dull the pain, but ends up back in the hospital after passing out from dehydration.

Elizabeth talks her through her survivors' guilt and gets her to see that it's not all about her.