Eamon de Valera's life spans revolution, exile from politics, and the presidency of Ireland, and this film tracks it from his birth in New York in 1882 through his death in 1975. Brought to Ireland at two and a half, he becomes a teacher and university lecturer before joining the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and commanding a garrison in the 1916 Rising, an act that earns him a death sentence commuted to penal servitude. Released under the 1917 amnesty, he wins East Clare as a Sinn Fein MP and holds a Clare seat continuously until 1959. The film follows his founding of Fianna Fail in 1926, his years as President of the Executive Council from 1932 to 1937, and his terms as Taoiseach in 1937-48, 1951-54, and 1957-59, alongside his presidencies of the League of Nations Council and Assembly in the 1930s. It closes with his inauguration as President of Ireland on 25 June 1959.