This biography contains three main sections. the first covers Adams's early years and his time as a diplomat--both in America and overseas. The second tells of his two careers as Secretary of State and President. The last involves his years in the House of Representatives.

A dialogue between a Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitallers and a Genoese Sea-captain, about the latter's voyage to a utopian city.

In Volume III of this series on the Hanoverian Kings, Justin McCarthy is joined by his son, Justin Hartly McCarthy, a liberal Irish MP like his father. Together they bring to life, poor stubborn George III, the outrageous radical, John Wilkes, the rebellious American Colonies, great-hearted Charles James Fox, the Gordon Riots which set London ablaze, Edmund Burke, Britain's problematic Indian policy, and the brave, enigmatic Younger Pitt, who faced national fears of the spread of revolution across the Channel from France and then confronted the imminent threat of invasion by the armies of Napoleon.