The controversial president struggles to maintain his integrity and sanity in a shifting political landscape.

Although he's one of the most chronicled public figures of the 20th century, Richard Milhous Nixon remains an enigma to many, his decisions, motives and behavior often shrouded in mystery. With the ill-fated 1972 Watergate break-in and its tragic aftermath--culminating in the President's 1974 resignation--as its focus, NIXON examines its subject's complex life, including his difficult youth in Southern California and often troubled relationship with wife Pat. We also see Nixon's incredible political life, during which he held the offices of Congressman at age 33, Senator at 37, and Vice-President at 39, before losing the Presidential election in 1960 and the California gubernatorial race in 1962, making his startling comeback six years later to win two terms as President. With the inevitability of classical tragedy, Nixon's political career finally crumbles beneath the weight of his past, his ambitions, and his blindness to events just outside his often remarkable range of vision.