Four volunteers sign up for what initially appears to be a typical paid research study. Quickly, they discover that they have unwittingly become involved with a classified government program that should have been terminated nearly two decades ago. As the study gets underway, the group is presented with a series of questions, and given a finite window of time in which each individual member must submit a unique numerical answer. At first, the participants all assume that the subject who gives the most obviously incorrect answer will be removed from the experiment, but it does not take long for the group to realize that the correct answer isn't always the answer that the researchers are looking for. Meanwhile, the brooding Dr. Phillips attempts to manipulate the study to get the answers he wants. Ms. Reilly, a military psychologist and the newest member of his team, begins questioning the ethics of such a diabolical experiment.