Gary Hart, former Senator of Colorado, becomes the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1987. Hart's intelligence, charisma and idealism makes him popular with young voters, leaving him with a seemingly clear path to the White House. All that comes crashing down when allegations of an extramarital affair surface in the media, forcing the candidate to address a scandal that threatens to derail his campaign and personal life.

When political turmoil forces a British-Caribbean dictator to flee his island nation, he seeks refuge and hides with a rebellious teenage girl in suburban America, and ends up teaching the young teen how to start a revolution and overthrow the "mean girls" in her high school.

Margaret Mitchell, portrayed as rebellious and spirited as Scarlett O'Hara, grows up in a comfortably middle-class Atlanta home, absorbing her grandmother's stories of the Civil War and the burning of their city by the Yankees. Young Peggy, as she likes to be called, goes to Smith College in Massachusetts and hates it. Back in Atlanta, her mildly scandalous reputation is made more so by her first marriage, to Red Upshaw, a bootlegging rake. Later, her second husband encourages her to expand her writing talents beyond feature articles for The Atlanta Journal. Her first and only novel becomes one of the best-selling books of all time.