The whole world is watching the first manned flight to Mars, but three astronauts are plunged into a hair-raising battle for survival within a clandestine operation involving intrigue and murder. The astronauts are removed from their spacecraft to an abandoned desert hangar and told that their life support systems have malfunctioned. They are ordered to participate in an elaborate charade, simulating a Martian landing as cameras roll and with the entire world as an audience. The astronauts have no choice but to co-operate. Not only does the director of NASA inform them that their mission's success is crucial to the future space programmes but threatens their families' lives as well. The three astronauts escape and separate, hoping that one of them will live to expose the sensational fraud.