Frus­tra­tion fills the air dur­ing the peri­od between Decem­ber 20 and 24 as Navy Lieu­tenant David Dixon Porter finds him­self nav­i­gat­ing the increas­ing­ly com­plex polit­i­cal land­scape in Wash­ing­ton amidst the seces­sion cri­sis. On his way through down­town, Porter pass­es the res­i­dence of Sen­a­tor Jef­fer­son Davis, where a live­ly par­ty is in full swing. Despite his unwa­ver­ing loy­al­ty to the Union, Porter has main­tained rela­tion­ships across par­ty lines, seek­ing to under­stand the poten­tial paths to peace. His con­nec­tion with the Davis fam­i­ly draws him to the cel­e­bra­tion, where the mood is charged with excite­ment over South Carolina’s recent deci­sion to secede. This event under­scores the deep­en­ing divide, as those in atten­dance cel­e­brate what is seen as a bold step toward inde­pen­dence, fur­ther inten­si­fy­ing the polit­i­cal tur­moil sur­round­ing the nation’s future.

Dur­ing the cel­e­bra­tion, Mrs. Vari­na Davis, filled with exu­ber­ance, invites Porter to accom­pa­ny her to the White House to inform Pres­i­dent Buchanan of the “glo­ri­ous news” about South Carolina’s seces­sion. While Porter under­stands the impor­tance of the event, he sens­es an under­ly­ing unease in the sit­u­a­tion. The car­riage ride to the White House becomes an uncom­fort­able jour­ney, as Vari­na pro­pos­es that Porter join a seces­sion­ist navy and even hints at the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a monar­chy in the new­ly formed Con­fed­er­a­cy. Porter, grap­pling with the impli­ca­tions of these ideas, imag­ines the chaos and frag­men­ta­tion that might fol­low in the wake of such dras­tic changes. His con­cern grows as he con­tem­plates the via­bil­i­ty of a con­fed­er­ate gov­ern­ment and the poten­tial for deep insta­bil­i­ty among the rebel­lious states, under­scor­ing the uncer­tain­ty sur­round­ing the nation’s future.

Upon their return to the Davis res­i­dence, Porter is con­front­ed with an atmos­phere of drunk­en rev­el­ry, where Davis’s sup­port­ers cel­e­brate South Carolina’s seces­sion with unabashed joy. The stark con­trast between their jubi­la­tion and Porter’s grow­ing doubts about the course of action becomes increas­ing­ly appar­ent. Although Davis remains com­posed, seem­ing­ly pleased with the seces­sion, Porter becomes dis­il­lu­sioned with the fer­vor for rebel­lion. He choos­es not to accom­pa­ny the group to vis­it Buchanan, reflect­ing on the awk­ward­ness of hav­ing the pres­i­dent engage with indi­vid­u­als who are active­ly work­ing against the Union. This moment exem­pli­fies the grow­ing divide with­in the coun­try, as Porter’s inter­nal con­flict deep­ens, and the nation edges clos­er to an irre­versible rift.

As ten­sions rise, the nar­ra­tive shifts to New York, where Horace Gree­ley writes a let­ter to Pres­i­dent-elect Abra­ham Lin­coln, urg­ing a firm stance against the South­ern seces­sion­ists. Gree­ley empha­sizes the impor­tance of main­tain­ing nation­al prin­ci­ples, cau­tion­ing that any com­pro­mise that sac­ri­fices core beliefs will only weak­en the Union’s posi­tion. His words reflect the grow­ing alarm over the esca­lat­ing insta­bil­i­ty and the impend­ing threat to the nation’s uni­ty. Greeley’s warn­ing under­scores the urgency with which Lin­coln must nav­i­gate the rapid­ly dete­ri­o­rat­ing polit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion, as pub­lic con­fi­dence wanes and the risk of con­flict looms ever larg­er. The sit­u­a­tion is com­pli­cat­ed fur­ther by con­cerns over the safe­ty of Lincoln’s inau­gu­ra­tion, as Gree­ley high­lights the grow­ing ten­sion and the need for deci­sive lead­er­ship to steer the coun­try through its most per­ilous moment.

Mean­while, in Wash­ing­ton, Pres­i­dent Lin­coln is faced with mount­ing pres­sure as Gen­er­al Win­field Scott informs him of the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of key U.S. forts, specif­i­cal­ly Fort Moul­trie and Fort Sumter. Scott’s report under­scores the inad­e­qua­cy of the for­ti­fi­ca­tions in the face of pos­si­ble Con­fed­er­ate mil­i­tary action. Lincoln’s frus­tra­tion is pal­pa­ble, as he grap­ples with the pos­si­bil­i­ty that sur­ren­der­ing the forts to the seces­sion­ists might be immi­nent. This prospect deeply trou­bles him, as he is unwill­ing to con­cede to the demands of the Con­fed­er­a­cy, yet he finds him­self cor­nered by a series of polit­i­cal and mil­i­tary chal­lenges. His grow­ing frus­tra­tion sig­nals a crit­i­cal moment in the nation’s his­to­ry, as the ten­sion between the Union and the seces­sion­ists esca­lates, leav­ing Lin­coln in a pre­car­i­ous posi­tion as the nation stands on the brink of war.