The miniseries follows the history of its namesake, from the 1950s when Wallace was a circuit court judge in Barbour County, to his tenure as the most powerful governor in Alabama's history. It depicts his symbolic "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door", where Wallace attempted to block black students from entering the University of Alabama. It details his stance on racial segregation in Alabama at the time, which proved popular with his white constituents, and also depicts Wallace's rise as a presidential hopeful. This eventually leads to his attempted assassination—and his surprise victory in several states during the 1968 presidential election.