It's 1906 and America's zealous young president, Theodore Roosevelt, has a plan to control the seas and expand a burgeoning American empire: the Panama Canal, "the greatest feat of engineering since the pyramids." But the canal is in jeopardy; rumors are swirling about corruption and disease, and congress is threatening to withdraw its support. So Roosevelt sets out for Panama on a Navy battleship to change the narrative. America's status as a world power hangs in the balance.