Just after the President and First Lady settle into the White House in 1933, the body of a White House police officer is found at the foot of the President's bedroom door, and Eleanor Roosevelt feels it is her responsibility to solve the case without drawing the public's attention.

In 1932, New York City, top reporter Lorena "Hick" Hickok starts each day with a front page byline--and finishes it swigging bourbon and planning her next big scoop. But an assignment to cover FDR's campaign--and write a feature on his wife, Eleanor--turns Hick's hard-won independent life on its ear. Soon her work, and the secret entanglement with the new first lady, will take her from New York and Washington to Scotts Run, West Virginia, where impoverished...