The fictional story of a presidential run by Jack Stanton, a womanizing, idealistic Southern governor who battles other Democratic candidates in a primary run in 1992. As seen through the eyes of his African-American campaign manager, the Stanton campaign is filled with enthusiastic young Democrats all of whom have dreams that their man is going to win. The story behind the scenes, however, is a little more bawdy and involves Jack Stanton's politically astute wife; an attempt to blackmail the candidate with doctored audiotapes detailing a past sexual encounter; an alleged bastard child of Stanton's from a black teenager; a possibly illegal real estate deal known as Tidewater Estates; the uncovering of a candidate's past as a cocaine-addicted homosexual by Stanton's campaign; and the suicide of one of Stanton's longtime friends.