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.

The British Crown responds to the colonists' destruction of 600,000 pounds of tea by sending the ruthless General Thomas Gage to Boston to snuff out the rebellion. The general's tumultuous relationship with his wife, Margaret, leaves her vulnerable and soon, she engages in an affair with Sam Adams's close friend, Dr. Joseph Warren. To combat the growing British threat, Sam, John Hancock and John Adams meet with the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. But when the other colonists refuse to aid Boston, Sam and Hancock take George Washington's advice and begin training their own army. When Margaret divulges Gage's plan to capture Sam and Hancock, Paul Revere sets off on his legendary ride to warn the colonists. Revere arrives in the nick of time, but while Sam and Hancock flee from their safe house, they hear "The Shot Heard Round The World" as the British face off with the colonial militia.

As Sam Adams and John Hancock barely manage to escape, the superior British Royal Army massacres the rest of colonial militia at the famed Battle of Lexington. The two forces clash again at Concord, forcing the British to retreat back to Boston. While both sides prepare for an inevitable war, Sam and Hancock work with Ben Franklin to desperately convince the rest of the colonial representatives in Congress to support their cause--independence. When General Thomas Gage learns of his wife Margaret's affair with Sam's friend, Dr. Joseph Warren, Gage launches a full-out assault on the colonists at Bunker Hill. Sam uses the news of the battle to persuade the rest of the colonies to vote for independence. As British warships fire on Manhattan, The Revolutionary War begins, but the rebels will now face their enemy not as individual colonies, but as a single, united country.