On April 26, 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant near Pripyat, Ukraine experienced a malfunction which resulted in a core explosion in reactor 4. This miniseries follows Valery Legasov, the lead scientist working to control the disaster, Boris Shcherbina, a Soviet politician representing the interests of the Soviet government during the disaster, and Ulana Khomyuk, a nuclear physicist working to uncover the truth about what really happened at Chernobyl. This series tackles the problems that arise when the truth is ignored and kept from the public, begging the question: "What is the cost of lies?".