Laurel Hili's plan to pursue a career in documentary cinema doesn't go as smoothly as she'd hoped, forcing her to accept a job in Congress on the staff of her brother, a Maryland senator who serves as the Democrats' parliamentary whip. In her new role, the young woman immediately faces two serious problems. The first concerns the irreconcilable differences between Democrats and Republicans, threatening to trigger a government shutdown. The second is that leading American politicians have been attacked by small alien creatures that feed on people's brains. To uncover the true aims of these mysterious bugs, Laurel must team up with the eccentric conspiracy theorist Gustav Triplett and the coordinator Rochelle Dodie. The number of infected congressmen and senators continues to rise, forcing the heroine to take urgent measures to save Americans from lunatic politicians.