Young Madeleine spots Colonel Astor on the beach in Newport and feels a dart of sweet, terrible feeling in her heart.

Madeleine performs as Ophelia in a Junior League play while Colonel Astor watches from the audience.

Jack sends Madeleine a bouquet of pansies referencing her Ophelia role, launching his daily courtship deliveries.

Jack and Madeleine waltz together at a cottage dance decorated with the Mrs. Astor's favorite red roses.

Jack asks Madeleine to call him by his first name during a private walk on the porch of his cottage.

Jack holds Madeleine's hand during a symphony performance while her mother has conspicuously given up her seat beside him.

Madeleine tells Jack she would forfeit peace to be with him, prompting him to agree to speak to her father.

Jack gives Madeleine an oval diamond engagement ring on the lawn at Beechwood and they share a kiss.

Madeleine steps outside to address the reporters who throng her family's home after the engagement becomes public.

Madeleine and Jack marry at Beechwood during a gathering storm, holding hands throughout the cold ceremony.

Every guest on Madeleine's invitation list sends a polite letter declining to attend her first society luncheon.

The Titanic strikes an iceberg and Jack wakes Madeleine, telling her the captain wants passengers on deck.

Jack helps Madeleine into a lifeboat, is refused permission to board with her, and tosses her his warm gloves.

The Titanic breaks in two and sinks while Madeleine watches from the lifeboat, listening to cries in the darkness.

Madeleine gives birth to her son, John Jacob Astor VI, and holds him close, sensing his heartbeat against her chest.

Seventeen-year-old Madeleine Force catches the eye of Colonel John Jacob Astor, the richest man in America, during the summer social season in Bar Harbor, Maine. Their courtship blossoms through flowers, dances, and private conversations, eventually leading to a secret engagement and a wedding held at Jack's Newport estate. As a young bride, Madeleine struggles to win acceptance from New York's elite society, who freeze her out despite her best efforts to play the role of Mrs. Astor. The couple's escape to Egypt offers a brief reprieve, but their return journey brings them aboard the Titanic on her ill-fated maiden voyage. When the ship strikes an iceberg, Jack places Madeleine in a lifeboat, is refused permission to board, and stays behind as she is lowered to the water. She returns to New York a pregnant widow at eighteen and eventually gives birth to a son who carries on Jack's name and legacy.

The headline events of a love story cut short by the Titanic.

Katherine points out Mrs. Astor arriving on the Newport beach in a carriage and warns of her immense social power.

Colonel Astor introduces his dog, Kitty, to Madeleine and her mother after watching Madeleine win a tennis match.

Jack takes Madeleine, her sister Katherine, and his son Vincent on a picnic at a secluded private beach.

Madeleine's father counsels her that marriage will push and bend her but urges her to follow her own happiness.

Madeleine visits Jack's enormous Fifth Avenue mansion for the first time and is awed by his mother's looming portrait.

Vincent confronts Madeleine at Beechwood and tells her his grandmother would never have acknowledged her presence in the house.

The Noma rescues sailors from an overturned boat during a gale, and Madeleine brings the rescued men blankets and coffee.

Madeleine meets Margaret Brown for the first time at a hotel lunch and finds her genuinely and warmly friendly.

Madeleine peeks into Vincent's bedroom and finds a portrait of Ava painted as a powerful Roman goddess.

Margaret visits the cold Fifth Avenue mansion and advises Madeleine to redecorate and make the place her own.

Madeleine and Jack climb one of the Egyptian pyramids together while Jack teases her about being a gazelle.

Kitty vanishes from the dahabiya during the family's journey along the Nile, casting a shadow over the voyage.

Men on a passing boat return Kitty to the Astors on the Nile, and Madeleine feels their family is knit together.

Madeleine is lifted aboard the Carpathia by boatswain's chair and wakes in a cabin to learn Jack is not among the rescued.

Thousands line the streets for Jack's funeral as Madeleine presides as bereaved widow, clutching her strand of carnelian beads.

Madeleine's story is shaped not only by grand events but by the smaller moments that define her character and relationships. From her first awareness of Mrs. Astor's social power on a Newport beach to her encounters with the dog Kitty and the resentful Vincent, Madeleine gradually learns what it means to enter the Astor world. Her friendship with the warm and genuine Margaret Brown provides a lifeline in an otherwise cold social landscape, while their adventures in Egypt offer glimpses of the private life Madeleine truly desires. The temporary disappearance of Kitty during their Nile journey casts a shadow over the voyage, and her joyful return briefly gives Madeleine a sense of wholeness and family. After the sinking, Madeleine is rescued and brought aboard the Carpathia, where she must face the truth of her loss. She returns to New York to preside over Jack's funeral, publicly bereaved but privately shattered.

The quieter moments and supporting events that reveal the texture of Madeleine's world.

Colonel Astor steps backstage after Madeleine's play to be introduced to her, and a photographer captures their handshake.

Colonel Astor introduces his son Vincent to Madeleine at the racetrack and invites the Force family to his cottage for the weekend.

A boy at a garden party tells Madeleine that a Knickerbocker like Colonel Astor would never marry outside his class.

Jack sends Madeleine a rope of pearls for her debut, and they share their first kiss at the Christmas Ball.

A reporter confronts Madeleine outside her home and asks if she knows Jack's divorce agreement prevents him from remarrying.

Katherine asks Madeleine before the wedding whether what she feels for Jack is truly love and not just enchantment.

Madeleine realizes she is pregnant when persistent nausea in Paris finally explains why she has been feeling so unwell.

Jack and Madeleine tell each other they are in love for the first time while swimming together in a Cairo hotel pool.

Jack secretly arranges for the carnelian beads Madeleine admired at an Egyptian temple market to be given to her that night.

Mrs. Cardeza addresses Madeleine as Miss Force aboard the Titanic, and Margaret Brown publicly corrects the deliberate snub.

At dinner aboard the Titanic, Alice Fortune recounts a fortune-teller's warning that she would be set adrift on an open boat.

Madeleine demands that the officers in her lifeboat turn back to rescue survivors crying out in the freezing water.

Vincent meets Madeleine at the Carpathia's dock, blames her for Jack's death, and then notices she is pregnant.

The White Star Line calls Madeleine to inform her that the remains of Colonel John Jacob Astor have been recovered.

Madeleine sits beneath Jack's portrait in his study, finds his dog's spare collar in a desk drawer, and finally weeps.

The turning points in Madeleine's story arrive in quiet revelations and dramatic confrontations alike. A stolen photograph of their first handshake backstage marks the start of her lost privacy, while a boy's casual dismissal of any hope of marriage between them only hardens her resolve. Love is confirmed in whispered words exchanged in a Cairo hotel pool, and the carnelian beads Jack secretly arranges for Madeleine capture everything tender about their bond. Aboard the Titanic, social snubs resume and ominous warnings go unheeded, until the night the ship strikes ice and everything changes. In the disaster's aftermath, Madeleine demands her lifeboat return for survivors, and Vincent's accusations at the dock force her to defend the love she and Jack shared. Finding Jack's dog's spare collar in his desk, she finally allows herself to grieve the real man behind the legend.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that define Madeleine and Jack's story.