House Rules begins with the FBI stopping a terrorist attack on the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel.  The terrorists were young Muslim American men, but the mastermind behind the attack was an al-Qaeda operative working in the United States.  The first attack is quickly followed by three more: an attempt to fly a plane into the White House and two attempts to destroy the U.S. Capitol.  All the attacks involve Muslim Americans.  An atmosphere of fear and xenophobia quickly permeates the country, resulting in an ambitious senator introducing a bill to deport Muslim immigrants and do background checks on all Muslim Americans.  John Mahoney, Speaker of the House, refuses to support the bill but what he doesn’t tell the media is that he is a life-long friend of one of the terrorists and has his doubts regarding the FBI’s investigation into the attacks.  He sends his man DeMarco down the rabbit hole to find the truth.