Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon) works at a nuclear power plant in Southern California and openly admits that he so believes in nuclear power that the plant is his life. Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is doing a series of news stories on alternative power resources and visits the power plant on the day of an earth quake. The cameraman (Michael Douglas) managed to film the reaction of workers in the control room at the time. But when they try to get their story to the news station, their news editor kills the story after being reassured by the plant's public relations people that all is well. However, when an aftershock seems to come from within the plant, Jack does his own investigation. He is faced with a moral dilemma to go against his superiors and risk his job by sounding the alarm about the dangerous condition of the plant or to keep it quiet. When he cannot get any support he turns to the reporter and her cameraman for help.