Professor Manchin, from Portland State University, requests an appointment to view the F. Scott Fitzgerald papers in the Firestone Library at Princeton University. This collection includes the five original manuscripts for Fitzgerald’s novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, and The Last Tycoon. When the head of the collection checks his credentials online, Manchin seems legitimate—but only because one of his partners hacked websites to solidify his credentials. On the day of his visit, Manchin surreptitiously cases the library and its surroundings.

When Manchin, whose real name is Mark, returns to the library again, he is disguised as a student. Mark is a thief, specializing in high-end art and artifacts, and over the next several weeks, he and the team’s leader, Denny, infiltrate the library repeatedly, using fake student identification.

After planning is complete, Mark, Denny, and another team member, Jerry, hide in the Firestone Library until after the building closes. A fourth man, Trey, is tasked with creating a distraction on campus, while the fifth team member, Ahmed, hacks into the necessary systems from a distance. Trey sets off smoke bombs and fires a gun, triggering the campus’s active shooter protocols.