Abigail Adams becomes the first wife of a president to occupy the presidential mansion in Washington. With her hopes high and her enthusiasm for the new mansion overcoming, for the moment, the fear of war with France, she is busy trying to create a home in the "barn of a place". It has 30 rooms and only six of them fit enough to live in but Mrs Adams is not afraid to scrub the floors herself, create a home and prepare the place for a banquet to entertain the French Minister and through diplomacy help save the country from war with France.