After mysterious alien spacecraft land on Earth, American linguistics professor Dr Louise Banks (Adams) finds herself working with the army to decode the aliens' communications. Under the command of Colonel Weber (Whitaker), Louise and military scientist Ian Donnelly (Renner) try to learn more about the aliens' language so they can communicate with them and discover why they have come to Earth, before someone else across the globe decides to attack first.

But with the CIA and global leaders monitoring their interactions, will they be able to make their breakthrough without any unwanted interference?