The "Purge" of the title, for those who are still unaware, is an annual "celebration" in which, for a twelve-hour period, any crime you can think of is declared legal, as the police, fire fighters, and medical services take a break and let the U.S. citizens run amok without fear of prosecution for any misdeeds committed. The "patriotic" day now faces the biggest challenge since its inception, as independent senator Charlene 'Charlie' Roan, whose family was killed in front of her eyes on Purge Night eighteen years prior, is running in a hotly contested battle for the presidency with a platform on abolishing the practice because it is being used by the wealthy elite in business and government as a means to eradicate the poor and sick because they feel they are an economic burden on the rest of society. Her opposition for the seat is a representative of the status quo that has the backing of the NFFA (New Founding Fathers of America), which is a group of those mega-Christian right-wing elites (all older, white and rich), who desperately need to thwart the senator's momentum before they lose their stranglehold on the direction of American society to their favor. They market a "fair & balanced" change in the Purge Night law that protected government officials from harm during Purge Night as making things right to the downtrodden, because now no one is safe. However, it is all a ruse to get Senator Roan, who has decided she must hide in her home like everyone else so that it doesn't look like she's privileged, out of the way during the Purge. With big guns out to get her, it's up to chief security agent Barnes, as well as a kind and resourceful store owner named Joe and his cohorts, who all believe in the senator and what she stands for, to protect the vulnerable senator from being killed along with the plight of the nation's victimized poor through the acts of the Purge. Unfortunately, there's nowhere to hide when just about everyone out in the Washington DC streets is out to bask in the blood of the weak.