April 9, 1940. Denmark is invaded by the Nazis with very little resistance. Hitler allows the legitimate government to remain in office and King Christian X to stay in the country. A puppet government is not formed, but the executive branch is placed under the tutelage and close surveillance of Berlin. In response to these events, in Washington, the career Danish ambassador Henrik Kauffmann (1888-1963) opposes from the outset what he considers a shameful pact with German fascism and decides to act independently of the orders from Copenhagen, where he will eventually be declared a traitor. Kauffmann, whose wife, Charlotte MacDougall (1900-1963), is closely connected to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, remains steadfast and seeks to convince Americans to support his act of rebellion. Initially, even Roosevelt is not convinced. The US initially wants to remain neutral in the war. But the rapid advance of the Nazi army in Europe and the danger of England also falling into their hands changed everything.

It's no secret that the geopolitical status quo we've been living with for the past few generations is the one forged 80 years ago at the Yalta Conference, when the three major powers on the verge of victory in World War II met to lay the foundations for what the world would be like in the following decades. Present were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, representing the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, respectively. But the American delegation also included a much lesser-known man, albeit one accustomed to moving within the machinery of diplomacy: businessman and politician Averell Harriman.