Franklin, now in his 70s, embarks upon the most important role of his life: an alliance with France, England's greatest rival.

By far the oldest of the principal leaders of the American Revolution, Franklin, now in his 70s, embarks upon the most important role of his life. The American Revolution doesn't stand a chance without outside support; Congress sends Franklin to France in a desperate effort to secure an alliance with England's greatest rival. All of Franklin's considerable political skills - his talent for propaganda, public relations, back-room strategizing, his gift for subterfuge and manipulation - are called into play as he tries to convince the aristocratic French to lend much-needed support to the Revolutionary cause. Despite the French king's reluctance, and backbiting from John Adams, Franklin finally succeeds in obtaining the French support that leads to an American victory at Yorktown. With peace secured, Franklin returns to America, weary and ailing. But his country still needs him. Two years later, the elderly Franklin is carried into the Constitutional Convention to guide the rancorous delegates debating the balance of states' rights and federal power that will be embodied in the Constitution. Over the course of most of a century, Franklin has been a prime mover in shaping a new understanding of the relationships between man and God, man and nature, and man and government. But what of man and man? At the end of his life, Franklin devotes himself to abolishing slavery, recognizing that the bondage of one man by another is an abomination of the ideals of freedom for which America stands.