On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the American embassy in Tehran and captured dozens of American hostages, sparking a 444-day ordeal. But six Americans escaped, and a CIA officer named Antonio Mendez devised an ingenious but risky plan to rescue them before they were detected.

Disguising himself as a Hollywood producer, Mendez and an unlikely team of CIA agents and Hollywood insiders traveled to Tehran under the guise of scouting locations for a fake science fiction movie called Argo. Mendez succeeded in contacting the escapees and smuggling them out of Iran.

Mendez details this extraordinarily complex and dangerous operation, bringing to life the history-making collusion between Hollywood and high-stakes espionage.