On November 22, 1963, Joe Kennedy, Jr., who served as president from 1952-1956, perches on top of a building with a rifle and prepares to assassinate his brother, Jack Kennedy, the current president. Joe remembers Joe Jr. and his two brothers talking to his father, who is an ambassador. Joe insists that he does not want to go into politics or be someone's aide in Washington. Jack also says that he'd rather be a history teacher or perhaps a lawyer. Back in the present (1963), Joe Jr. reflects on his life: he was a one-term president whom his father asked to step down in favor of his brother, Jack. The timeline shifts to one month before the present day. Jack tells Joe Jr. that he will not endorse their brother, Bobby, for president. Joe Jr. is frustrated because it represents the end of their family's political dynasty. Lyndon B. Johnson has a meeting with Joe Jr. and indicates that he wants the presidential nomination. He offers to make Joe Jr. Secretary of State if he wins. Another flashback takes Joe Jr. back to 1946 and his first love, Rhoda. She tells him that he does not have to go through with being a Congressman, but he insists that he does because of his father's power over him. The two part ways despite their love for each other and she marries an economics professor. Joe Jr. hears later of her death at age forty in a flood. In the year 1955, the Ambassador tells Joe Jr. that he wants Joseph McCarthy to be in his cabinet, despite his radical views. Joe Jr. soon tries to throw McCarthy out of office because of how volatile he is. The Ambassador fights back but Joe Jr. refuses to give in. As a punishment, the Ambassador tells Joe Jr. that he will not be endorsed for another term and that his brother will be the next president. The Ambassador threatens to kill Rhoda. Joe Jr. assassinates his brother in the present day and runs. He speculates that not even Rhoda's advice could have saved him from this path.