In the final, exhausting months of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln stakes his political capital on ramming the Thirteenth Amendment through a divided House of Representatives before peace can rob it of momentum. As the war grinds on and his cabinet counsels caution, he trades in patronage, persuasion and quiet cunning to abolish slavery for good, all while private grief weighs on his marriage and his sons. Steven Spielberg forgoes battlefield spectacle for the smoke-filled rooms of democracy, anchored by Daniel Day-Lewis's uncanny, softly commanding portrayal. A talky, intricate and deeply humane study of principle wrestling with the machinery of power.