It is April 14, 1865, and after four long years, the bloody Civil War is finally over. Americans all across the nation are celebrating the end of the bloodshed. In the White House, Tess, the seventeen-year-old adopted daughter of President Abraham Lincoln, watches as he slowly becomes his old self again. The war has aged him tremendously. But now, he is finally happy again. The Lincoln family finally has time to think about their future. They can’t wait to go home to Springfield, Illinois, as soon as Mr. Lincoln’s second term is over. But all of Tess’s hopes and dreams are taken away in the fatal sound of a gunshot.

With Mr. Lincoln’s death, his wife Mary, sons Robert and Tad, and Tess try to recover from the horror and shock of their night at the theatre. The family moves to Chicago, and life slowly continues. Tess thinks that nothing can be worse than the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. But sorrow after sorrow continues to haunt her in the midst of what should be the happiest events of her life.

Standing in front of Abraham Lincoln’s grave, she thinks of all the sorrows she has endured through her life. And yet, through all those trials, she remembers the joy and the happy times. Mr. Lincoln’s legacy will burn bright in the heart of Americans forever, and in his own words, “Life is hard but so very beautiful.”