There is a gala at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Erma Emma Jones, the director of the museum, approves an unscheduled tour of the secure chamber where the Star-Spangled Banner is kept. When curator Jeff Brodie greets the group, he notices that there are five men waiting, not the approved four on his clipboard, but because they’re a special group, he brings them in anyway. They pass multiple levels of security, past artifacts including a portrait of Baltimore seamstress Mary Pickersgill, who “ha[s] eyes that followed you wherever you went in the exhibit” to the climate-controlled room where the flag is kept (4). As they’re about to leave, Brodie is called away to deal with an issue in another part of the museum, and a security guard comes to escort the men out. Because the clipboard list says there are only four visitors, one man is able to stay behind, hidden in the flag room.

The three protagonists—who don’t yet know one another—are sharing a bench at the gala while they wait for their relatives. Anna, the daughter of a senator and an aspiring journalist, scribbles notes for a news story about the party but is disappointed she’s been unable to get an interview with “the man her dad hoped would be the next president,” Robert Snickerbottom (9).