Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) are two reporters for the Washington Post whose styles of reporting are vastly different. But when the editor assigns them to a routine story of a break in to a hotel room at the Watergate hotel, they soon discover that they are on a big story. They have to put their differences aside to work together to cover the complicated story that leads them higher and higher in the Republican Party, trying to cover up criminal activity surrounding the upcoming re-election of Richard Nixon. Fortunately they have a source, who wishes to be identified only as Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook). Deep Throat gives them clues that directs them to the crimes that put the two reporters in constant danger and in heavy pursuit. The reporters must decide if the story they uncover is important to risk jail or even death to reveal the truth.