Plot
Jude, Pete, Paulie, Marc, and Luke are graduate school students who live together in a rustic home in Iowa.
After Zack, a Desert Storm veteran, helps move Pete's car, the group invite him to have dinner at their home. However, Zack turns out to be a racist and Holocaust denier who praises Adolf Hitler, leading to a tense political debate with the liberal students.
The evening takes a turn for the worse when the veteran snaps and holds a knife to Marc's throat, threatening to kill him and rape Paulie. Zack releases Marc, then Pete holds a knife to his throat, but he easily incapacitates Pete and breaks his arm. Marc fatally stabs Zack in the back to defend his friend, and the group decides to cover up the murder. Paulie regrets that Zack is dead even though he threatened her and Marc.
After a long discussion, the students decide to follow up this event by inviting other conservatives for dinner to murder them, reasoning this would "make the world a better place". They lay down a procedure for each murder. The guest will be given every opportunity to change his/her mind and recant his/her beliefs. If the guest fails to change their ways by dessert, the guest is offered poisoned white wine from a blue decanter and raises a toast. The bodies are buried in the vegetable garden.
Guests, all of whom are murdered, include: a homophobic protestant reverend, a misogynistic, chauvinistic rape apologist; a Neo-Nazi; an anti-environmentalist; a racist, anti-Semitic Nation of Islam fundamentalist; an anti-abortion activist; a censorship advocate; a man who beats homeless people (the only dinner guest who momentarily considers recanting his beliefs); and critics of gay rights.
After ten murders, misgivings begin to surface within the group as a few grow indecisive regarding the justification of their actions. Infighting and guilt compel them to spare a teenage opponent of mandatory sex education, despite the protests of Luke and Pete.
Sheriff Alice Stanley, investigating the whereabouts of missing girl Jenny Tyler, comes upon the group. By coincidence, the main suspect in the case is Zack, their first victim, who was also a convicted sex offender. The sheriff grows suspicious of the students’ behavior, questioning Pete, Marc and Paulie at their home. Finding Stanley trespassing in their back yard, Luke –increasingly unhinged –kills Stanley, unbeknownst to the rest.
During a school break, Luke and Pete meet famous conservative pundit Norman Arbuthnot, a regular on TV news and talk shows, and invite him to dinner. During dinner, Norman stymies them with his moderate and persuasive arguments, all of which the usually argumentative group have difficulty debunking. He even admits that he says more radically conservative things mostly for attention.
The frustrated students all excuse themselves to the kitchen to determine Norman's fate. Before excusing himself, Jude warns Norman that the wine in the blue bottle has gone bad. In the kitchen, after a brief discussion, only Luke still wishes to kill Norman, calling him Hitler. After a tense altercation, Luke is dissuaded and breaks down into tears.
Meanwhile, Norman examines the home and pieces together their murderous activities. When they return to the table, Norman presents them with glasses of wine and offers them a toast but does not drink himself, with the excuse that he has to fly his private plane. He puffs on a huge cigar and says, "Don't worry, I didn't pour any of the bad wine."
A closing shot of a painting portrays all five students collapsed on the floor, with Norman standing next to the blue bottle and smoking his cigar. The film ends with audio of Norman speculating about his possible presidential bid to a cheering crowd, pledging to do the people's will.
