In the early 1830s, a youthful Abraham Lincoln (Raymond Massey) departs his home in Kentucky to study law and make a name for himself. While traveling to New Orleans to deliver several pigs he raised with his father, Abe meets Ann Rutledge (Ruth Gordon) in the sleepy hamlet of New Salem, Illinois. Abe returns to the town, starts a business and marries Ann before slowly working his way toward politics and the fateful future that will see him become one of America's most iconic presidents.