Reworking extensive interview and archival footage, Morris constructs a distinctly wry portrait of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. An integral figure in the shaping of U.S. foreign policy in the 1960s (including the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban missile crisis, and the escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam), in recent years McNamara has expressed his personal and professional regrets about these historic events. Among the film's highlights are segments of rare taped telephone conversations between McNamara and his respective commanders in chief Kennedy and Johnson. Structured as eleven lessons from McNamara's life, Morris's uniquely probing technique vividly explores the moral complexity of the actions and beliefs of one of the major political figures of the Cold War era.