The new Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord finds herself immediately faced with a maelstrom of difficult political challenges with an international hostage situation being her most important challenge.

Elizabeth has to deal with a crisis in Yemen and there's trouble on the home front for her as well after her oldest daughter Stevie manages to make the headlines for protesting a new policy at her university.

Elizabeth is confronted by a hostile reporter who threatens to publish confidential documents that were leaked from inside the State Department. Later, Henry is dragged into an international negotiation when his wife uses his job as leverage to broker a deal with Pakistan.

While Elizabeth works to successfully broker a peace treaty between China and Japan, a Chinese student seeking political asylum threatens the deal. Meanwhile, tensions rise at home between Alison and Stevie during Alison's sleepover party.

When Elizabeth faces the daunting task of negotiating with Iran over their escalating nuclear program, she is determined to deal with the situation in a peaceful manner, despite the President's position of using military action. Meanwhile, Jason has new admiration for his father when he interviews him for a school report.

When the President approves Henry's reactivation into the NSA, he decides to keep his continued involvement in the spy game a secret from Elizabeth. Meanwhile, Matt and Daisy's antagonism toward one another begins to affect the entire office.

Elizabeth is humiliated at a public budget hearing when her staff fails to find the corruption that exists in her microloan program. Also, the investigation into Marsh's death continues.

Elizabeth heads to Turkey to mend political relations after the Turkish government releases a video that could be damaging to the CIA. Also, Jason is threatened with expulsion after punching a bully at school.

Elizabeth secretly travels to Iran in an attempt to prevent a coup that could impact President Dalton’s administration. Also, she brings her staff up to speed on the investigation into Marsh’s death.