The series follows the lives of President Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor told in flashback from her perspective after her husband's death, from the time they were children as cousins who met briefly, their courtship and marriage, bearing and raising a large family, her social efforts as he rises to Assistant Secretary of the Navy in World War I, the hidden affair with Lucy Mercer, (1891-1948), her help and encouragement with his 1921 paralytic illness, and her campaigning with Louis Howe, (1871-1936), their mentor, crony and campaign manager during his runs for political offices in the New York state legislature, the unsuccessful effort for Vice President in 1920, later winning as Governor of New York and his rivalry with fellow politician Al Smith, (1873-1944), until his election to the Presidency in 1932 in the darkest times faced by the nation since the Civil War with the deepening "Great Depression".