Jefferson Davis' early years: West Point, military appointment, and his first love and tragically short marriage to Sarah Knox Taylor. After ten reclusive years as a planter, Davis marries again and forges a political path that leads him to Washington City as a Mississippi representative to Congress. He distinguishes himself in the Mexican War and returns a hero. Davis then serves his country in the Senate, as Secretary of War and in the late 1850s, with the stirrings of secession abounding, Davis tries to keep the fledgling nation together but at the end, Davis must side with his home state of Mississippi and departs his beloved Washington City...forever.