Episode one introduces George Shultz through the details of his early life; his service as a U.S. Marine; his academic career as a free-market economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; as Dean of the Business School at the University of Chicago; and his early cabinet posts as Secretary of Labor and Treasury under President Nixon.

White House cabinet members continue to vie for the president's attention, putting forth competing tactics to achieve the administration's goals. Reagan is taken with the Contras, a group of rebels fighting the Communist government in Nicaragua. While Congress has ruled out the use of Defense Department or CIA funds to help the rebels, some advisers keep bringing the issue to Reagan's attention.

As the Iran-Contra scandal grows, a summit meeting continues in Iceland as Reagan and Gorbachev meet each other face-to-face for a second time to determine the future of a nuclear world. Tempers flare as Shultz realizes that Reagan will not give up the "Star Wars" Space Defense Initiative even if Gorbachev agrees to destroy all Soviet nuclear weapons.