Plot Synopsis

In November 1620, after 66 days at sea, the Mayflower arrived in New England's Provincetown Harbor with 102 men, women and children aboard. The brutal journey across the ocean on a vessel never intended to carry passengers had left many sick, hungry and dying. And though the sight of land brought great relief to the travelers, little did they know their journey had only just begun.
Of those who made the journey on the Mayflower, there were those we know as "saints," religious separatists who abandoned their prior lives for a single cause, religious freedom. The others, the "strangers," were motivated by real-world material objectives and adventure as opposed to spiritual ideas. This clash of values between these groups created complex inner struggles as they sought to establish new individual identities and a new colony in America. Among the settlers are: William Bradford, the colony's moral compass; his wife Dorothy Bradford, still haunted by their decision to leave their three-year-old son behind for the journey to the New World; John Carver, the initial leader of the Pilgrims and the first governor of the Plymouth Colony; Edward Winslow, who would serve as a diplomat to the nearby Pokanoket tribe and their leader, Massasoit; and Myles Standish, the colony's military advisor; Stephen Hopkins, who, despite his checkered past, is the only Mayflower passenger who had previously been to the New World; his wife, Elizabeth Hopkins, who gives birth to their second child aboard the Mayflower and is one of only four women to survive to the first Thanksgiving; and John Billington, an antagonistic patriarch of a family known for troublemaking.

NIGHT 1: At sea on the Mayflower, with passengers sick and weary from a seemingly endless voyage and the hardships they faced when arriving at Plymouth. With half of their population dead after the first winter, the settlers are concerned about their vulnerability to attacks by the area Native American tribes, who themselves are divided on how to deal with the English. One leader, Massasoit of the Pokanoket tribe, chooses diplomacy first, putting him at odds with some of his peers. With the aid of an English-speaking emissary, the Pokanoket make peace with the Pilgrims, putting them in a position of great power among the other tribes.

NIGHT 2: Alliances are put to the test when a betrayal by the settlers leads to a broken agreement with the Pokanoket. Finding themselves again exposed, a new threat emerges for the Pilgrims as rumors spread that the natives are planning to attack the English. But after the Pilgrims help nurse an ailing Massasoit back to health, he warns them of the danger. The Pilgrims preemptively strike first and are victorious, and the Plymouth Colony's renewed alliance with the Pokanoket would go on to last for more than 50 years.