Warm Springs

The film opens with Franklin D. Roosevelt paralyzed and living in semi-isolation on a Florida houseboat with two male attendants. He reflects on his 1920 campaign and his rising profile, despite critics who view him as arrogant and untested for national leadership.

Eleanor learns of Franklin's extramarital affair, and the couple remains married but leads largely separate lives. The revelation frames the personal tensions that will influence his political path and public image.

Franklin is diagnosed with polio, leaving him unable to walk and prompting a move to Florida to live on the houseboat and search for purpose beyond his prior ambitions.

A storm wrecks the houseboat, forcing the Roosevelts to seek safety in a nearby restaurant. Louis Howe arrives and urges Franklin to return to New York to resume his political career.

Franklin receives a letter from George Foster Peabody inviting him to Meriwether Inn in Warm Springs, Georgia, claiming a handicapped boy walked in the waters. Intrigued, Franklin travels there with Eleanor to explore a possible rehabilitation path.

Roosevelt and Eleanor arrive to find the inn run-down and ill-suited for his needs. Franklin declines a two-story residence for safety and settles into a small one-story cottage, beginning tentative hydrotherapy in the pool.

Eleanor urges Franklin to return to New York for access to better doctors, but he remains hopeful Warm Springs will help him walk again. Eleanor returns to New York where Louis Howe advances her role as a social activist.

The buoyant waters enable Franklin to stand and move, and his growing celebrity leads to a newspaper interview. He fears pity from the public until Tom Loyless reassures him that people see his determination instead.

The resort closes for the season and Franklin returns in spring to discover more polio victims flocking to Warm Springs after his interview goes national. He confronts the unintended consequences of his public image and the resort’s expanding role.

At the train station, Franklin witnesses Fred Botts, a newly arrived polio patient, being carried in the baggage car. He and Tom take Botts to the resort for care, since nearby hospitals are out of reach, and they learn able-bodied guests cannot use the pool or dining room during regular hours.

Physical therapist Helena Mahonny arrives, inspired by Franklin's interview, and advocates for hydrotherapy as beneficial but pushes for more pool time. Franklin decides to buy the resort and convert it into a polio rehab center.

Tom Loyless reveals he has terminal cancer and intends to return home to die. Franklin's domineering mother insists on stopping the Warm Springs project, sending Louis and Eleanor to pull him back to New York.

Back in New York, Eleanor supports the cause and fundraising begins while a visiting doctor evaluates the resort to determine whether hydrotherapy can yield lasting benefits for polio patients.

Eleanor, Louis, and Helena persuade Franklin to revive his political career and devise a strategy for public appearances with a cane and leg braces, creating the impression of mobility and resilience without relying on crutches.

The plan succeeds and Franklin is elected Governor of New York; four years later he becomes President of the United States and serves until his death in 1945, with Warm Springs continuing as a cornerstone of his legacy.