London-based military intelligence officer Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) is remotely commanding a top secret drone operation to capture a group of dangerous terrorists when they arrive at a safe house in Nairobi, Kenya. The mission suddenly escalates from a capture to a kill operation, when the cameras spot explosive suicide vests that are being placed on two new recruits - one from the States and the other from Britain.

Knowing that many will be killed if the men are allowed to leave wearing the suicide vests, American drone pilot Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) gets the go-ahead to destroy the safe house, when a small girl enters the kill zone just outside the walls of the house on her daily routine of setting up a stall to sell bread. The debate goes back and forth a chain of politicians and lawyers on whether to hit the safe house or not, as the seconds count down.