September 3, 1902. Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Theodore Roosevelt has been president for less than a year when his horse-drawn carriage is broadsided by an electric trolley. Roosevelt is thrown clear but his Secret Service bodyguard is killed instantly. Accident? Or assassination gone awry? Roosevelt has earned enemies galore and is convinced of foul play. He sets John Hay, the secretary of state, to investigate. Hay will cross paths with Emma Goldman and J.P. Morgan to discover the truth. and along the way he will pick up a sidekick, the crusading journalist Nellie Bly. Blending real events and novelistic logic, Hay uncovers a shocking solution that may protect the man who wants to transform the nation, but at the cost of upending the compass of his own life.