Becoming Madam Secretary

In the summer of 1928, Frances takes a summer away with Susanna at the family homestead in Maine, which she has inherited now that her parents have passed. One night, she is roused from her sleep from a voice in the woods: that of Franklin D. Roosevelt. She rouses herself to realize that one of her neighbors has hooked up his radio to a loudspeaker to broadcast that year’s Democratic Convention in Houston. Unable to go back to sleep, Frances listens to Franklin’s voice, realizing for the first time what a magnificent speaker he is.

Franklin’s speech secures the 1928 Democratic presidential nomination for Al Smith, who is running for president again. The party decides to replace the governorship with Franklin once Al is elected. Al assigns Frances to work for the Roosevelt campaign for governor.

Although Frances is worried about Franklin’s physical stamina due to his paralysis, they decide to run a robust campaign, driving from event to event rather than taking the slower yet simpler train. Frances wonders about how he’s able to keep such a calm demeanor, and Franklin tells her that his paralysis has given him a new attitude toward life.

One event on the upper floor of a crowded building presents intense challenges for the campaign, as there is no way to get Franklin to the podium while shielding his condition from public view. Instead, Franklin insists that his entourage take him up the fire escape, despite Frances’s worries. However, the event goes well, and Frances leaves with even more respect for the future president.

Frances and Franklin enjoy campaigning with each other, despite Al Smith’s needs for Frances to work in other arenas. In rural campaign events, they notice that the voters are very suspicious of Al’s Catholicism, worrying that he might be more loyal to the Pope than to the United States. In the southern states, the campaign is faced with intimidation from the KKK, as well as hecklers in the various audiences.

Al loses the election to Republican Herbert Hoover. Frances, convinced that she’ll be losing her job, wanders over to Franklin’s campaign headquarters, only to discover that, against expectations, Franklin has won the race for the governorship of New York.

In January 1929, Frances attends the gubernatorial inauguration in Albany for Franklin D. Roosevelt. Franklin is feeling insecure, as it seems as if Al and his staff don’t believe that he is capable of the role. Frances encourages him to stake out his own space and not let the former occupants of the office determine his political future.

Franklin is asked by Al to give a job to his former advisor, Belle Moscowitz. Frances, unwilling to see Belle fired, agrees to help. However, when Belle insults Franklin’s competence, Frances decides that she won’t be advocating for her after all.

Franklin offers Frances a promotion to the head of the state’s labor department. Despite the understanding that elevating a woman would be difficult in the chauvinistic world of New York politics, Franklin still supports Frances’s promotion, and he offers her a significant bump in pay to entice her to accept.

Frances is worried about Paul’s reaction to her new appointment. However, Paul encourages Frances to pursue the opportunity. The family decides to move to Albany to be closer to Frances’s work. After meeting with Florence Kelley, Frances realizes that her career has become an inspiration for other politically inclined women throughout the country.

Frances finds working for Franklin to be an adjustment, as he’s significantly more excitable and impulsive than Al. Frances has a goal of getting rid of child labor in New York state for good, which Franklin promises to support. Every Sunday night, Franklin gives a “fireside chat” on the radio to gather support for his administration’s progressive policies.

Frances comes to enjoy the Roosevelts, particularly Eleanor, who comes across as frank and pleasant. One night, Eleanor and Frances share a carriage on a midnight train to Albany from New York. Eleanor tells Frances about her tragic childhood, engendering sympathy from Frances. However, Frances’s feelings are tempered by Eleanor’s clear privilege as an extremely rich and powerful person. Eleanor also confesses that she once offered Franklin a divorce after he’d had an affair. Frances, feeling deeply uncomfortable, excuses herself to the restroom until Eleanor goes to sleep.

Frances notices that the jobs seem to be disappearing, as a drought and falling food prices have increased the competition for work in the cities. Franklin gives a speech decrying income inequality, contradicting the prevailing opinion that the economy is fantastic.

By October 1929, the United States economy has collapsed. Now, investors and brokers are jumping to their deaths from windows in New York City skyscrapers. Paul feels vindicated, as he predicted the stock market crash months before. Frances feels as if the president should have reacted better to the crisis; however, it seems as if his administration is manipulating the employment numbers to reflect better on his policies. Enraged, Frances calls multiple press conferences to decry the Hoover administration, accusing them of lying to the public. Afterward, she worries that she might have hurt Franklin, as she’s now a member of his administration. However, Franklin thinks that her public stand is admirable and promises to continue supporting her.

By March 1930, it’s clear that the stock market crash has resulted in a significant economic depression, with more than a million people out of work. To help solve the economic crisis, Frances recommends that Franklin pursue a policy of social insurance, a public fund that would pay out in the event of a worker losing their job.

Franklin decides to send Frances over to Great Britain to study their system of unemployment insurance. Since Paul is afraid of sea travel, Frances decides to take Susanna, now 15, for a trip to Europe. Although they travel to several beautiful places, including Amsterdam, Susanna is upset at Frances’s constant workload, which distracts her from the trip.

Returning from the trip, Frances tells Franklin that she doesn’t think the British system of unemployment insurance would work for New York state. However, they continue to work on the idea to adapt it to the much larger United States population. As the months pass, Frances realizes that Franklin is gunning to replace Herbert Hoover as the president of the United States.

In November 1930, Franklin D. Roosevelt is re-elected governor of New York in a landslide election. Meeting with Belle Moscowitz, Frances realizes that she still harbors anger toward Franklin for not hiring her, considering him an inferior successor to Al Smith. Belle tells Frances that Al is planning on challenging Franklin for the Democratic nomination for president.

Florence Kelley has become gravely ill, and Frances visits her at her hospital room in Germantown. She expresses sadness to Frances that she’ll be leaving the world with so many battles still unwon. Florence soon passes away at the age of 72.

Mary warns Frances that she’ll be forced to pick between Al and Franklin, as both men are courting her endorsement for their presidential runs. Though Frances wants to remain removed from the contest, eventually Belle directly requests her endorsement for Al. Instead, Frances tells Belle that she should encourage Al to drop out of the race. Belle insults Franklin in response, and Frances storms out in anger. Soon, she endorses Franklin for president.

As election season ramps up, the media latches onto the idea that Franklin’s paralysis will make it difficult for him to perform the tasks of the presidency. Al, however, denounces Franklin and Frances publicly as too far left, comparing them to the Bolsheviks in the newly created Soviet Union.

Now that Frances is a public figure, safety has become more of a concern, and she’s being hounded by reporters at her home and at her work. One day, Paul sits her down and tells her that he needs to admit something to her. During the war, he’d had a job with the War Shipping Board; however, what Frances didn’t know was that his job there involved code breaking, which was considered top secret. Paul claims that during this work, he discovered an algorithm that has allowed him to predict economic depressions and, as a corollary, also allows him to come up with potential solutions to those same crises.

Paul brings Frances into his study to show her his formula. However, the formula is clearly nonsense to Frances, and Paul is circling blank parts of the paper as if they contain writing on them, clear evidence that he’s having another episode of his bipolar disorder. While Frances stares at the paper in horror, Paul brings in a bottle of champagne to celebrate. However, he becomes angry when Frances tells him that he shouldn’t drink due to his condition. Paul proceeds to berate Frances with a cruel list of her perceived faults, which Frances interprets as a symptom of his disorder. Paul then throws a glass against the wall, shattering it and scaring Frances.

Later, Frances calls Franklin to tell him that she won’t be able to attend the Democratic Convention in Chicago, as Paul has had a “psychotic break.” Paul’s condition continues to worsen, and the doctors eventually recommend that he be committed to a sanitarium. Frances refuses to have him committed, despite the doctors’ warning that his symptoms are likely to become worse. Instead, she hires a nurse to watch him while he’s home.

The race for the nomination heats up by July 1932. Franklin ends up victorious after negotiating the Texas and California delegations to give him the vote. During his acceptance speech, he promises the American people a “New Deal” to help get them out of Great Depression.

At home, Paul is still suffering from psychosis and is only occasionally lucid. In Albany, Franklin becomes disturbed by photos of Army recruits dismantling the shelters of unemployed United States military veterans, which he blames on the attitude of Herbert Hoover.

One day in autumn, Paul pushes past his nurse and escapes the house. Frances finds him outside City Hall, where he’d been sitting, worried that the family is under attack by Germans—a clear sign of continued delusion. Paul tells Frances that the Germans are searching for his magic formula, which is only inside his head. He opens his hand to reveal a palm full of pills, which he plans to ingest to kill himself. Frances has him committed to a sanitarium against his wishes. She worries that the old Paul, before his mental illness, is gone for good.

Frances calls on her network of friends in New York City to help her raise Susanna. The next time she visits Paul in the sanitarium, she’s confronted with a shell of the man she used to know, now heavily medicated. 

Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected president in November 1932. However, Frances is having a hard time celebrating due to the issues she’s been having in her home life. On Franklin’s final day as governor of New York, he thanks Frances for the years of work she’s put in supporting his administration.

Following the election, reporters hound Frances to know whether Franklin will appoint her to his cabinet. Frances doesn’t believe that Franklin will appoint her, and she privately fears that the public will discover that she’s locked her ill husband away in a sanitarium. Frances writes Franklin, hoping he’ll withdraw his support for her. However, Franklin refuses to do so and tells Frances that he wants to appoint her to be his Secretary of Labor.