During the Civil War, a half-Cherokee teenager uses the skills of her upbringing as an undercover operative for America's first detective agency, to help protect the Lincoln family.

SYNOPSIS:

PILOT SYNOPSIS: 1860, Kansas Territory, 16-year-old Isabelle East kills two Outlaws after they murder her aunt and uncle. Detective Allan Pinkerton learns of her exploit and recruits her to help protect the newly elected President Lincoln and his family.

When Pinkerton becomes aware of a plot to kill Lincoln on his way to Washington for the inauguration, he sends Isabelle (disguised as Mary Lincoln) and other decoys to impersonate the Lincolns. In Baltimore, they barely escape with their lives.

Isabelle becomes assistant to Mary Lincoln's seamstress, and ingratiates herself to the First Lady by speaking French. Mary hires her as French tutor for her and Abe's young sons. She doesn't know Isabelle is an undercover operative -- the President had refused Pinkerton's request to create a protective service.

When the Lincolns hold their first public reception at the Executive Mansion, the President has an unknowing brush with death -- the would-be assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

SERIES SYNOPSIS: During the first year of the Lincoln presidency, Isabelle struggles to keep her cover as she protects the Lincolns. Her surrogate father, Elijah, keeps an eye on her.

A former slave who escaped to Indian Territory, where he lived with Isabelle's family, Elijah becomes an undercover operative and is employed as a groom in the Lincoln stables. As a result of Lincoln's love of animals, Elijah forms a friendship with the President, and is instrumental in Lincoln's evolution into an abolitionist -- which he wasn't prior to the War.

With the death of young Willie Lincoln, Isabelle's position as the boys' French tutor ends. Pinkerton sends her (disguised as a boy) to Richmond to investigate what's become of his best operative, Timothy Webster, who's undercover as a Confederate. There, Isabelle witnesses his hanging -- the first spy on either side executed during the War. As a mentor to Isabelle, Webster's death devastates her.

Pinkerton's hopes of establishing a protection unit for the President are thwarted, and he becomes General McClellan's head of the military's Intelligence Service. As such, he places Isabelle (disguised as a boy) and his son, William, in the civilian Balloon Corps, which uses dirigibles to spy on the Confederates during the Peninsula Campaign.

When Lincoln removes McClellan as Commander of the Army, Pinkerton resigns and returns to Chicago with William. Isabelle and Elijah remain in Washington, monitoring and protecting the Lincolns on Pinkerton's behalf.

The Emancipation Proclamation allows Negros to officially fight for the Union. Elijah volunteers for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment -- the "Glory Battalion." After the Battle of Fort Wagner, he's listed as "missing in action."

Kaw Indians visit the White House. Isabelle learns the two Kaw teenaged boys who helped her following the death of her aunt and uncle have joined the Union Army. She's invited to return to Kansas to reconnect with the surviving boy, and take part in their buffalo hunt. From Kansas, Isabelle visits her family in Indian Territory, finding the Cherokee divided by the War. There, she applies her skills as a spy to support the Union cause.

Isabelle returns to Washington following Lincoln's re-election. On 14 April, 1865, despite her frantic attempt to prevent it, John Wilkes Booth finally manages to assassinate Lincoln. Isabelle blames herself for his death. As the funeral train leaves Washington, she's reunited with Elijah, who'd been a prisoner of the Confederates.

After the War, Pinkerton invites Isabelle and Elijah to continue in the Agency. Now 20, Isabelle becomes a "Pinkerton Lady" in the Wild West. With the expansion of the railroad, the Agency has never been busier.

PINKERTON GIRL: CHILD OF A CHEROKEE WOMAN