In Boston, Sam Adams--brilliant but deeply in debt--incites the anger of the British crown after accidentally provoking the destruction of the royal governor's mansion. With the British authorities on his tail, Sam is forced to turn to a wealthy socialite--John Hancock--for help. But when their association ruins Hancock's British business connections, together, Sam and Hancock establish an ingenious black market smuggling operation only to have it swiftly shut down by the royal governor. Once again, riots consume the streets of Boston. Sam engineers a protest of loyalist businesses, but when a young boy is murdered by a British supporter, the conflict with the British goes from a dispute about money and taxation to a fight for freedom.