A strange phone call reveals a question from the grave – was The Godfather of Soul murdered? Almost 40 years ago, a songwriter found herself in musician James Brown’s inner circle. The relationship would nearly destroy her career. Decades later, she’s trying to solve the mystery of James Brown's death…and her own life. When she makes a call to CNN reporter Thomas Lake, the two stumble into a world of secrets, intimidation, and suspected foul play.
A strange phone call reveals a question from the grave – was The Godfather of Soul murdered? Almost 40 years ago, a songwriter found herself in musician James Brown’s inner circle. The relationship would nearly destroy her career. Decades later, she’s trying to solve the mystery of James Brown's death…and her own life. When she makes a call to CNN reporter Thomas Lake, the two stumble into a world of secrets, intimidation, and suspected foul play.
In 2017, CNN reporter Thomas Lake receives a phone call from a circus singer who tells a wild, hard-to-believe story: James Brown didn’t die of natural causes in 2006; instead the Godfather of Soul was murdered. After months of calls from the circus singer, Lake decides to fly to Chicago to meet Jacque Hollander in person. There Jacque proves her connection to James Brown and shows Lake a videotape of a polygraph test she took in 1995 that was administered by a former FBI agent.
Still struggling to wrap his mind around the circus singer’s story, Thomas Lake investigates Jacque Hollander’s role in the Atlanta music scene, learns how she first met James Brown and his third wife Adrienne, and finds out how Jacque became part of Brown’s inner circle. Jacque in turn reveals the events of one harrowing night she says she spent with James Brown in 1988, the night her life changed forever.
Thomas Lake asks the circus singer more questions about her friendship with Adrienne Brown, who believed there was a criminal organization surrounding the Godfather of Soul that she called “The Machine.” Lake learns that both women were convinced US government agents spied on them and tried to kill them. It turns out James Brown too suspected he was being watched by the CIA during his lifetime. So Lake dives even deeper into the mystery behind government surveillance and celebrity.
The circus singer tells Thomas Lake about other government men who turn up in her life, including a mysterious new guy she falls in love with named Steve. Jacque Hollander goes to South Carolina to report she’s been raped by James Brown. She also goes to Texas to visit Steve. The visit doesn’t go as planned and is made worse when she learns James Brown’s third wife Adrienne has died. Jacque is convinced it was murder and somehow her boyfriend Steve is involved. Lake calls the detective who investigated Adrienne’s death and together they discover a clue in a long-forgotten notebook that may confirm Jacque’s worst suspicions about Adrienne’s death.
The detective investigating Adrienne Brown’s death gets a tip from an informant who says a doctor in California is responsible for Adrienne’s untimely death. Thomas Lake visits this doctor to ask if he killed Adrienne Brown. Meanwhile, one of James Brown’s friends says he has a vial of blood which proves that the Godfather of Soul was murdered. And when Jacque Hollander gets a threatening phone call, she thinks it’s from someone who wants her to keep quiet about James Brown’s death.
Jacque Hollander suspects a backup singer for James Brown is involved in his death death. The singer vehemently denies this and says Jacque misunderstood a story she heard. Brown’s lawyer asks Jacque to pick up a duffel bag from a storage unit that contains things from James Brown’s final days. A man named Ghost asks if the duffel bag contains poison used to kill James Brown. Brown’s lawyer initially tells Jacque to throw the bag into a lake before telling her to contact authorities. Jacque makes an appointment to bring the duffel bag to a prosecutor.
Jacque Hollander takes the duffel bag to a prosecutor in Georgia who agrees to look into the circumstances of James Brown’s death. We learn that right before he died, the Godfather of Soul wanted to move to New York City. But one member of Brown’s inner circle doesn't want him to leave South Carolina. Thomas Lake digs deeper into Brown’s closest advisors to find out why, and flies to California to talk with a woman who may know more about Brown’s last moments alive.
A prosecutor tells Jacque Hollander that powerful people don’t want James Brown’s death to be investigated. Jacque hears back from the CIA as to whether or not the agency has a file on her, and Thomas Lake examines Brown’s possible affiliation to the CIA. Ghost calls again, demanding Lake stop his reporting. The duffel bag Jacque turned over to the prosecutor disappears, while Jacque continues her search for the truth about the deaths of James Brown and his third wife, Adrienne.
